Alwaght- Iraqi government forces have liberated some of the last few remaining areas in western Mosul’s Old City occupied by the ISIS Takfiri terrorist group which now faces complete annihilation in the country.
“Federal Police troops freed Bab Jadid and Souq al-Arbe’a regions,” the command said in a statement on Saturday. The troops also gained control on the Iron Bridge in the Old City.
Earlier on Saturday, Lt.Gen.Shaker Jawdat, chief of Federal Police, announced liberatin of al-Shifa district, located north of the Old City, adding that troops were able to reach to the Tigris River bank.
Another statement by Lt.Gen.Thamer al-Husseini, chief of the Rapid Response troops, declared the liberation of the Public Hospital, the Republican Hospital, al-Batool Hospital and the Educational Hospital, all in al-Shifa district.
Battles in al-Shifa district have been ongoing against ISIS terrorsits since beginning of June.
On Friday, the Iraqi Joint Operations Command said the army’s elite Counter-Terrorism Service retook Shaarin market, Nabi Girgis and Abd Khoub in the Old City. The forces, according to JOC, consummated the recapture the of al-Farouq area, which falls adjacent to the al-Nuri al-Kabir Mosque where ISIS ringleader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the group’s rule over Iraq in 2014.
The final liberation of Mosul, according to CTS Commander Abdul-Ghani al-Assadi, could be achieved within a few days. Only between 200 and 300 ISIS fighters were remaining in the city.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has declared an end to ISIS’s "state of falsehood" following the recapture of the wrecked historical Grand al-Nuri Mosque at the heart of the city of Mosul.
“The return of al-Nuri Mosque and al-Hadba minaret to the fold of the nation marks the end of the Daesh state of falsehood,” Abadi said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the ISIS Takfiri terrorist group by its Arabic acronym.
Iraqi forces, he said, would continue to hunt ISIS elements "to kill them and detain them, down to the last one.”
The terrorists blew up the medieval mosque and its famed leaning minaret a week ago as Iraqi forces and local allies advanced towards it.
The Iraqi army recaptured the venue of the al-Nuri iconic mosque on Thursday, with the country’s state TV implying the liberation of the city, which has been under the control of the terrorist group since 2014.
