Iraq PM declares victory against ISIS in Mosul
Gunfire still heard as airstrikes hit city
Iraq declared victory against the ISIS in Mosul on Sunday after a gruelling months-long campaign, dealing the biggest defeat yet to the jihadist group.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s office said he was in “liberated” Mosul to congratulate “the heroic fighters and the Iraqi people on the achievement of the major victory”.
The announcement comes after months of heavy fighting that have left Iraq’s second city in ruins and forced thousands from their homes.
The fighting did not seem to be completely over, with gunfire still audible in Mosul and air strikes hitting the city around the time the Premier’s office released its statement.
But Mr Abadi’s arrival had been expected for days as a signal of the end of the battle for the city.
Photographs from his office showed the Premier dressed in a black military uniform and cap, shaking hands with police and Army officers as he arrived in the city.
The operation has been backed by a US-led coalition battling ISIS in Syria and Iraq, which has carried out waves of air strikes against the jihadists and deployed military advisers on the ground. French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country is a key part of the coalition, offered his congratulations.
Baghdad, July 9: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi arrived in Mosul on Sunday and congratulated the armed forces for their “victory” over ISIS after nearly nine months of urban warfare bringing an end to jihadist rule in the city. ISIS’ defeat in Mosul three years after taking the city is a major blow for the hardline Sunni Islamist group, which is also losing ground in its operational base in the Syrian city of Raqqa, where it has planned global attacks.
The group, however, still controls territory in Iraq and is expected to revert to more conventional insurgent tactics such as bombings as its self-proclaimed caliphate falls apart.
ISIS leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi made his only known public appearance in July 2014 announcing himself to the world as “caliph” during a Friday sermon at a mosque in the Old City.
The Iraqi government does not reveal casualty figures, but a funding request from the US Department of Defence said the elite Counter Terrorism Service, which has spearheaded the fight in Mosul, had suffered 40 per cent losses.
“It is a major blow to ISIS’ prestige,” said David Witty, an analyst and retired US special forces colonel.
The fall of Mosul further reduces the so-called caliphate’s territorial contiguity leaving more pockets of IS-held land completely isolated.
Yet analysts warn it is too early to declare final victory. “We should not view the recapture of Mosul as the death knell for IS,” said Patrick Martin, Iraq analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, adding the group “still holds significant urban terrain” notably in Syria.
“If security forces do not take steps to ensure that gains against ISIS are sustained for the long-term, then ISIS could theoretically resurge and recapture urban terrain,” Martin said.
As it attempts to save the remnants of the caliphate, the group is likely to intensify a transformation it has already begun by focussing more of its resources on guerrilla attacks and bombings.
“In the near term in Iraq, ISIS will switch to terrorism and insurgency instead of trying to openly control major areas” David Witty, an analyst and retired US special forces Colonel, said.
Martin said there was already a pattern of major ISIS attacks following military setbacks.
The deadliest ever bomb attack in Baghdad, in which more than 320 people were killed last year, came after the jihadists lost their emblematic bastion of Fallujah.