Iraqi Prime Minister congratulates armed forces for Mosul 'victory'

[webfact]

Iraqi Prime Minister congratulates armed forces for Mosul 'victory'

By Stephen Kalin

 

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (C) is pictured in Mosul, Iraq, July 9, 2017. Iraqi Prime Minister Media Office/Handout via REUTERS

 

MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi arrived in Mosul on Sunday and congratulated the armed forces for their "victory" over Islamic State after nearly nine months of urban warfare, bringing an end to jihadist rule in the city.

 

Islamic State's 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 from 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.

 

The battle for Mosul - by far the largest city to fall under the militants' control - has left large areas in ruins, killed thousands of civilians and displaced nearly 1 million people.

 

"The commander in chief of the armed forces (Prime Minister) 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.

 

State television later showed Abadi touring Mosul on foot alongside residents of Iraq's second-largest city.

 

Air strikes and exchanges of gunfire could still be heard in the narrow streets of Mosul's Old City, where the group has staged its last stand against Iraqi forces backed by a U.S.-led international coalition.

 

Abadi met commanders in west Mosul who led the battle, but he has yet to issue a formal declaration that the entire city has been retaken from the group which is also known as ISIS.

 

Abadi's spokesman, Saad al-Hadithi, said victory would not be formally declared until the few remaining Islamic State militants were cleared from Mosul.

 

Still, France and Britain, members of the coalition that has conducted air strikes and provided training and assistance to Iraqi forces on the battlefield, welcomed the defeat.

 

"Mosul liberated from ISIS: France pays homage to all those, who alongside our troops, contributed to this victory," French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted.

 

"I congratulate Prime Minister Abadi, and the Iraqi forces who have been fighting on the ground with great bravery and care against a brutal opponent," British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said in a statement.

 

While celebrating "the removal of the death cult from Mosul", Fallon said the military operation was not over.

 

"This barbaric group remains dug in west of the Euphrates and clearing operations in and around Mosul will be needed because of the threat from improvised explosive devices."

 

In Washington, National Security Council spokesman Michael Anton, when asked whether the battle for Mosul was complete, replied: "Situation not resolved, but we are monitoring."

 

"FIGHT TO THE DEATH"

 

Iraq still faces uncertainty and long-term stability will be possible only if the government contains ethnic and sectarian tensions which have dogged the country since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

 

The fall of Mosul exposes fractures between Arabs and Kurds over disputed territories, and between Sunnis and the Shi’ite majority.

 

The group vowed to "fight to the death" in Mosul, but Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told state TV that 30 militants had been killed attempting to flee by swimming across the River Tigris that bisects the city.

 

Cornered in a shrinking area, the militants resorted to sending women suicide bombers among the thousands of civilians who are emerging from the battlefield wounded, malnourished and fearful, Iraqi army officers said.

 

The struggle has also exacted a heavy toll on Iraq's security forces.

 

The Iraqi government does not reveal casualty figures, but a funding request from the U.S. Department of Defence said the elite Counter Terrorism Service (CTS), which has spearheaded the fight in Mosul, had suffered 40 percent losses.

 

The Department of Defence has requested $1.269 billion in U.S. budget funds for 2018 to continue supporting Iraqi forces, which collapsed in the face of the few hundred militants who overran Mosul in 2014.

 

Backed by coalition air strikes, an array of Iraqi forces gradually clawed back territory from Islamic State until reaching Mosul, the group's de facto capital in Iraq, last October.

 

It is almost exactly three years since the ultra-hardline group's leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, proclaimed a "caliphate" spanning Syria and Iraq from the pulpit of Mosul's medieval Grand al-Nuri mosque.

 

Abadi declared the end of Islamic State's "state of falsehood" a week ago, after security forces retook the mosque - although only after retreating militants blew it up.

 

The United Nations predicts it will cost more than $1 billion to repair basic infrastructure in Mosul. In some of the worst affected areas, almost no buildings appear to have escaped damage and Mosul's dense construction means the extent of the devastation might be underestimated, U.N. officials said.

 

(Writing by Isabel Coles; Additional reporting by Maher Chmaytelli and Maya Nikolaeva; Editing by Michael Georgy and Robin Pomeroy)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-07-10

[phantomfiddler]

If there were any isis prisoners taken, just round them up, apologize to them, and give them $10,000,000 apiece and all will be well !

[The Deerhunter]

1 hour ago, phantomfiddler said:

If there were any isis prisoners taken, just round them up, apologize to them, and give them $10,000,000 apiece and all will be well !

Huh?????

[Rancid]

Wow, if we could just possibly work out who is funding and training ISIS then we could take them to the International Court for crimes against humanity. Alas it remains a complete and utter mystery...

[ddavidovsky]

It's now or never. This is the big opportunity. Give it to the Kurds.

[ilostmypassword]

11 minutes ago, ddavidovsky said:

It's now or never. This is the big opportunity. Give it to the Kurds.

Many reasons that's a bad idea. One is the Turkmens. Lots of them in Mosul. Turkey won't be happy.

[boomerangutang]

It's nice to see some Iraqis smiling.  They usually have little to smile about.  Even in the best of times, they're restricted in thought and action by their mean-spirited belief systems.  Women are still property, and treated a bit better than stray dogs (though not allowed the freedom of dogs walking around town).

 

Kudos to the Iraqi fighters, though.  It's weird, how many similarities there are to warfare during times of the Assyrians, and now.  It's still basically siege warfare, blow up every building and every living thing in them.  Their ways of thinking haven't changed much in the tens of centuries since those olde times.

 

Maybe they'll plant a few trees.  At least give the surviving kids something green to look at, through the smoke and haze.

[bartender100]

12 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

If there were any isis prisoners taken, just round them up, apologize to them, and give them $10,000,000 apiece and all will be well !

That's what Jeremy Corbyn would do

[boomerangutang]

49 minutes ago, ddavidovsky said:

It's now or never. This is the big opportunity. Give it to the Kurds.

                         I don't know to what degree the Kurds fought to rid Mosul of ISIS.  But I agree Kurds should be allowed to have their own country; Kurdistan.  It would be a landlocked country, forever hassling with Turkey and Iraq, and probably spawning radical Islam terrorist groups - but heck, how is that much different than other countries in that region?   Arabs in general have a tough time being at peace, and getting along with any group/country that's doesn't believe word-for-word what any nearby group compels it to agree. 

 

                   Best scenario would be human populations decrease by 98%, leaving just wandering nomads.  That would enable the region to slowly get back to its natural state of desert with a few hardy plant and animal species.

[nausea]

19 hours ago, The Deerhunter said:

Huh?????

It's a sarcastic reference to Maher Arar, who received an apology and $10.5 m dollars in 2007 from the Canadian authories after an "Extraordinary Rendition" by the US. Not really a valid comparison IMHO, but you can read his story on the Net and make your own judgement. It's topical because 3 other Syrian Canadians recently received similar apologies and (undisclosed) compensation.

[nausea]

Addendum: seems I can't edit the above, maybe cos of the quote; anyway, the cases of those three other Syrian Canadians aren't so recent and date back to March; I missed the latest case of Omar Khadr which gives some force to Phantomfiddler's comment; maybe not so much in the context of Arar, but certainly in the context of Khadr.

Edited July 11, 2017 by nausea
More info.

[Grouse]

14 hours ago, ddavidovsky said:

It's now or never. This is the big opportunity. Give it to the Kurds.

Yes, I have some sympathy with this idea. Make Mosul the capital of a new Kurdistan secular state. That would keep both Turkey and Iran of balance.

 

I would then divide the rump of Iraq in two. Basra can be capital of a Shia led state. Bagdad can remain capital of a Sunni oriented state to avoid an ISIS resurgence.

 

Where's that Sykes Picot bloke with his pencil when we need him?

Edited July 11, 2017 by Grouse