IS on brink of Last battle over Mosul nears end’

DEFEAT was looming for Islamic State last night in its main Iraqi stronghold after eight months of bloody war.

An ever-shrinking band of diehard fighters in the city of Mosul faced being overrun by overwhelming ground assaults by Iraqi special forces.

Local state TV in Baghdad claimed a Mosul victory was imminent and could be announced “within hours”.

Earlier an Iraqi general had told us close to 1,000 Isis fighters were making a desperate last stand against the army’s elite Golden Division.

But General Fadil Barwari stressed many of the extremists were mortally wounded and dying in the smashed alleyways of Mosul’s Old City.

We have been embedded with special forces soldiers of the Golden Division battling the last dregs of Isis close to the al-Nouri Mosque.

We witnessed a deadly barrage of Iraqi mortars, bombs, infantry attacks and coalition air strikes – including sorties by the RAF – smashing Isis positions a few hundred metres away.

Infantry

Yesterday some Iraqi troops and police were seen dancing in the streets of Mosul despite the threat of counter-attacks.

Around 130,000 troops have been involved in ousting Isis from Mosul including Peshmerga Kurds, Iraqi infantry, Iraqi police and British and US special forces.

The final push was left to several thousand Iraqi special forces, police and Shia militia backed by western troops such as America’s Delta Force.

A coalition of air forces including the American and British have launched daily air strikes, with the RAF playing a key role using Reaper drones, Tornados and Typhoons.

Last night Isis officially announced its fighters were “collectively pledging death” in Maydan, the riverside district where they are holed up.

This was taken to mean they had vowed to fight to the last man.

Now there are growing fears of a massive strike back by IS sleeper cells in Northern and Central Iraq as the grip on Mosul collapses.

South of Mosul they launched an attack on a village, slaughtering Iraqi soldiers and civilians including two local journalists in a bid to close in on a US military base.