Mosul is free after three years under Isil’s shadow
Islamic State loses control of its main stronghold as Baghdad’s forces liberate the city after three years
ALMOST exactly three years ago today, Isil leader Abu Bakr al-baghdadi announced a caliphate from the Iraqi city of Mosul.
From the pulpit of its most famous mosque, he made his first and only public appearance to declare himself head of an Islamic caliphate stretching across Iraq and Syria. His followers would wreak terror upon millions of people under its control. Mosul was the jewel in the crown, the largest city within its borders. But last night, Haider al-abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, declared the terrifying reign of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) was over. After a ninemonth offensive, Mosul was liberated.
Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, said: “Britain has played a leading role in the coalition that has helped bring about the removal of the death cult from Mosul. The RAF has struck more than 750 targets as part of the campaign to liberate Mosul – second only to the United States.”
This marks the end of the largest urban battle since the Second World War, one which involved tens of thousands of Iraqi forces backed by Western warplanes and special forces. The offensive turned much of the city to rubble and forced nearly a million people to flee. Thousands of civilians were killed, many by Isil, but there are fears that coalition bombs also caused many casualties.
DRESSED in the black cap and fatigues of the Iraqi counter-terrorism forces, a jubilant prime minister Haider Al-abadi arrived in Mosul yesterday to declare victory over Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), even as fighting continued to rout the last jihadist diehards.
On day 266 of the campaign to recapture the city, which first fell to Isil in the summer of 2014, Mr Abadi shared a photo of himself shaking the hand of an Iraqi officer as he walked on the runway of a nearby air base.
“The commander in chief of the armed forces, Haider al-abadi, arrived in the liberated city of Mosul and congratulated the heroic fighters and Iraqi people for the great victory,” his office said in a statement.
Earlier, counter-terrorism forces were pictured planting the Iraqi flag on the western bank of the river Tigris after advancing through the Old City, where Isil fighters made a last stand.
It marked the end of the fight that lasted nearly nine months – longer than the Second World War battle for Stalingrad – and put an end to the terror group’s three year rule over Iraq’s second city.
Isil stormed into Mosul in June 2014. Abu Bakr al-baghdadi, the group’s leader, proclaimed Isil’s so-called Caliphate in the city shortly afterwards.
While the group still controls the district of Hawija north of Baghdad and remote areas of Anbar province and desert close to the Syrian border, the loss of its Iraqi capital deals a death blow to the group’s claims to a caliphate.
Fighting continued around a 50yard by 200-yard wedge of territory in the Al-maidan area of Mosul’s Old City, where an unknown number of Isil militants continued to hold civilians as human shields.
Other militants are believed to have escaped with fleeing civilians in recent days. Some have detonated suicide belts as they reached Iraqi military screening points, while others have attempted to swim the Tigris to escape.
Already the country has begun celebrating what is being hailed by Abadi as “the end of the fake Daesh state”.
In Baghdad, carloads of cheering men waving Iraqi flags drove through the capital celebrating. In Mosul, elated federal policemen filmed each other singing and dancing to patriotic music, weapons and smartphones held aloft.
But with much of west Mosul devastated, many of the city’s residents will have little to celebrate. Exhausted families continued emerging from the ruins yesterday, many mourning relatives recently killed in the fighting.
In much of the destroyed Old City, the stench of rot emanates from the rubble – coming from entombed bodies which may never receive a proper burial.
Already aid agencies are warning that an extremely traumatised population will require support for months if not years to come.
The battle to retake Mosul began last October, with coordinated attacks by Kurdish Peshmerga from the east and Iraqi army units pushing up from the south. Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) were the first soldiers to enter the city, and were responsible for retaking most districts of east Mosul, which was declared fully liberated in January.
With ISOF units depleted by casualties, Iraqi federal police and army units carried out most of the fighting in the west. Many of these units proved more poorly trained, relying on air strikes that caused high civilian casualties and extensive damage to the city.
The fighting reached its brutal apogee in the Old City, where a few hundred Isil hardliners fought to the death, effectively holding an estimated 100,000 starving civilians hostage during the last weeks of fighting.
The US Defense Department has estimated ISOF casualties at 40 per cent, according to a budget for training and equipping counter-isil forces produced in May.
The civilian casualties monitoring group Airwars believes that between 900 and 1,200 civilians were killed in bombing by the Us-led coalition, and more by Iraqi shelling. Iraqi civil defence officials have suggested that up to 4,000 bodies may still be lying buried under rubble.
Nearly a million people were displaced by the fighting. A United Nations survey of the damage found 15 of west Mosul’s residential neighbourhoods have been completely destroyed.
The UN is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in stabilisation funds to repair critical electricity, water and sewage networks, and reopen hospitals, schools and municipal buildings.