Mosul to be liberated from IS control soon by Iraqi forces

By 10th of June 2017, Iraqi forces hope to eliminate Islamic state militants from Mosul of Iraq. After three years’ reign of IS in this second largest city of Iraq, the group is finally going to accept its defeat soon.

According to reports, a target has been given to military forces to eliminate IS from Mosul within a fortnight. However, the report has also disclosed that an unknown number of IS fighters were still hidden among an estimated 165,000 civilians in the old city. The winding streets, blind alleyways and densely-packed buildings make military progress especially difficult.

Major Qusay Al-Kinani, commander of Iraq's Special Operations Forces, told, "Mosul fell to (the IS) on June 10, 2014, so by June 10 this year it must be liberated."
On Monday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that the forces were in the last stages of defeating the Islamic State in the remaining neighbourhoods of Mosul.
He mentioned, "The enemy (IS) is in a state of collapse and cannot achieve any of its goals in Mosul, which once they considered their capital."

According to Prime Minister, 90% of Mosul has been liberated from Islamic States. He added, "Life is returning to normal on the left bank of Mosul and on the right bank most of it has been freed. We will soon declare full liberation of the city."

Abadi, who is also the commander-in-chief of Iraqi forces, last year promised to rid Iraq of the IS by the end of 2016. Military commanders have also said that the liberation would be finished before Ramadan -- which started last Friday. The latest advance is part of a major offensive designed to secure the border areas with neighbouring Syria and cut off the IS supply routes between Mosul and the Syrian city of Raqqa, the capital of the IS caliphate.

Maan al-Saadi, commander of special operations, said the forces have taken control of 70 per cent of al-Saha neighbourhood in north of the IS-held old city centre and killed around 70 IS militants, most of them foreigners and non-Iraqi Arabs, in the battles during the past two days.
The operations near the Syrian border came as Iraqi forces, backed by the anti-IS international coalition, were conducting a major offensive to dislodge the IS militants from their major stronghold in western Mosul. Mosul came under IS control in the year of 2014.