Mosul celebrates Eid without Daesh
IRAQI COMMANDER SAYS MOSUL WILL BE RETAKEN IN DAYS AS PM SAYS VICTORY IS NEAR
Iraqi forces have retaken two thirds of old Mosul, a week after launching an offensive against Daesh’s last bastion in the city, a senior commander said yesterday.
Lieutenant Colonel Salam Al Obaidi was speaking to AFP inside the devastated Old City, about 50 metres from what is left of the “Hadba” leaning minaret the terrorists blew up four days earlier.
“Sixty-five to 70 per cent of the Old City has been liberated, there is less than a square kilometre left to retake,” said Al Obaidi, from the elite Counter-Terrorism Service that has spearheaded the assault.
He estimated that only “a few hundred Daesh fighters” were left in the Old City.
The ornamental brickwork on the base of the 12th century “Hadba” (Hunchback) minaret, which was Mosul’s symbol and one of the most recognisable landmarks in Iraq, was visible in the background.
The cylindrical shaft of the minaret came tumbling down when Daesh on June 21 detonated explosives the terrorists had rigged to it.
The terrorists simultaneously blew up the nearby Al Nouri mosque, where Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi gave his first sermon as Daesh leader in July 2014, his last public appearance to date.
The narrow, winding streets of the Old City, an area packed with heritage treasures covering about three square kilometres on Mosul’s west bank of the Tigris, were littered with rubble.
The fighting has been among the most intense in the threeyear-old war against Daesh and AFP reporters said the destruction in old Mosul was extensive, with some buildings still standing but none unscathed.
The terrorists, who have no escape from their last redoubt in the Old City, have mounted a fierce defence using booby traps, mortars, suicide attacks and snipers.
The massively outnumbered and outgunned group of diehard terrorists are holding tens of thousands of civilians as human shields.
Eid celebrated
Meanwhile, people in Mosul celebrated their first Eid Al Fitr holiday without Daesh in years yesterday after the terrorists were ejected from much of the city, and hoped the battle to recapture the remaining area would soon be over.
Children gathered in squares on the eastern side of the city. Some played on old swings and others with toy guns and rifles, which were among the toys allowed by Daesh after they took over the city in June 2014.
The terrorists associated toys with a face, like dolls, with idolatry. They encouraged youngsters to train on weapons and changed textbooks to reflect their military ideology. Children were asked to add up bombs or bullets in maths exercises. Eid prayers were allowed under Daesh but festivities were not.
But for many, yesterday’s Eid celebrations were overshadowed by the destruction of their historic leaning minaret, and fears for thousands of civilians trapped in the Old City in western Mosul still under Daesh control.
“It won’t be real Eid before we return home,” said a man in his sixties, displaced from the western side of the city, across the Tigris river, where fighting continues.
Some expressed sadness over the destruction of the 850-year-old Grand Al Nouri mosque and its leaning 150foot (45-metre) minaret.
“Eid is not the same,” said a man who declined to give his name as fear is still present even though Iraqi forces dislodged the insurgents from the eastern part of the city months ago.
Iraqi forces took the eastern side from Daesh in January, after 100 days of fighting, and started attacking the western side in February. The militants are now besieged in Mosul’s Old City.
“As our heroic forces are closer to declaring final victory over the Daesh gangs, I offer my most sincere congratulations for Eid Al Fitr,” Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said in a statement.
A US-led international coalition is providing air and ground support in the eight-month-old offensive to drive the militants from their de facto capital in Iraq. An Iraqi general said yesterday that he expected the battle for the city to end in days.