‘Old Mosul will be their graveyard’: Iraqi troops squeeze ISIS to its final few metres and claim victory will be declared in the city within HOURS
Iraqi security forces are set to declare victory in Mosul after obliterating ISIS, according to state television
It is thought only a few hundred jihadis remain in the Old City neighbourhood after a huge onslaught
Government forces have been trying to drive out the terror group since October last year
Soldiers have been pictured celebrating the impending victory against the jihadist terror group
By SCOTT CAMPBELL and DAVE BURKE
DAILYMAIL.COM
8 July 2017
Iraqi security forces are set to declare victory in Mosul within ‘a matter of hours’ with local media reporting that Islamic State has been all but forced out of the city.
A huge onslaught has seen the jihadists’ last bastion in the city fall, state TV has reported, following air strikes and artillery salvoes.
The country’s state broadcaster said: ‘We are seeing now the last metres (of the battle) and then victory will be announced. It’s a matter of hours.’
But ISIS militants have vowed to ‘fight to the death’ despite claims they will imminently lose the pockets of the city they control.
Some Iraqi soldiers celebrated, dancing with rifles and machine guns and waving the national flag as they reached their assigned targets, without waiting for a formal victory announcement to be made, a Reuters TV crew said.
More than three quarters of the remaining jihadists in Mosul are foreigners, according to Iraqi commanders who have reported a spike in suicide attacks as anti-ISIS forces close in on the Old City.
‘They never surrender,’ said General Abdel Ghani al-Assadi, a commander in Iraq’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service. ‘Old Mosul will be their graveyard.’
A military spokesman cited by the TV station said the insurgents’ defence lines were collapsing following months of fighting.
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