Iraqi PM Abadi to deliver victory speech in West Mosul


nsnbc : Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is to deliver a victory speech in West Mosul on Thursday, June 29, after Iraqi forces announced that they now control the site of the recently destroyed al-Nuri Mosqe and the al-Hadba Minaret in Old Mosul where ISIS declared its caliphate in Iraq and Syria three years ago.

Mosul_Al-Nuri mosque destroyed_Jun 2017The al-Nuri Mosque and the minaret exploded a week ago when Iraqi anti-terrorism troops were merely 50 -85 meters from the site. ISIS and the United States blamed one another for the destruction of the emblemic mosque and the world famous leaning “hunchback” minaret.

Military spokesperson Yaha Rasool told reporters Thursday afternoon that ISIS has been militarily defeated in the entire city of Mosul. He added that there still are tens of ISIS militants in small places of old Mosul. He also called on the people of Iraq to “celebrate the end of the extremist group” in the city.

Iraq’s Joint Command also stated that the Sanjkhana district in Old Mosul was also liberated today, Thursday, June 29, 2017. Thursday morning, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi visited Iraq’s Joint Command in Baghdad to oversee the military plans for a “decisive war.”

Grand Al-Nuri Mosque_Mosul_Jun 2017_Iraq_MoD Iraq (2)The office of the prime minister reported that Abadi and the military and security commanders for the operations in Nineveh province “discussed the war plans, and instructions were issued to our heroic forces and our commanders to decide the war”.

The Iraqi forces are close in announcing “their big military victory over the ISIS militants,” said Iraq’s Joint Command in a separate statement on Thursday as it denied reports that its forces in Mosul were targeted by the US-led global coalition. Iraqi forces have already liberated several other areas in Old Mosul, including Hazar al-Sada, Ahmadiyah, and Faruq 2.

The Joint Command also stated that the US-trained Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Services (CTS), the Army’s 16th Brigade, and the Federal police have cleared half of the old city, and that the area yet to be retaken totals 850 by 1,700 meters (1.445 sq km) in the old city.

The Al-Nuri Mosque is where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his so-called caliphate on June 29, 2014, naming himself “caliph,” leader of the whole Islamic world, seeking to found a new Islamic regime.

Minaret of the al-Nuri mosque before its destruction.

Minaret of the al-Nuri mosque before its destruction.

The mosque is named after Nuruddin al‑Zanki, a noble who fought the early crusades from a fiefdom that covered territory in modern-day Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The mosque was built in 1172-73, shortly before his death, and housed an Islamic school. By the time renowned medieval traveler Ibn Battuta visited two centuries later, the minaret was already leaning. Its tilt gave the landmark its popular name – al-Hadba, or the hunchback.

The minaret was built with seven bands of decorative brickwork in complex geometric patterns ascending in levels towards the top in designs also found in Persia and Central Asia. Nabeel Nouriddin, a historian and archaeologist specializing in Mosul and its Nineveh region, said the minaret has not been renovated since 1970, making it particularly vulnerable to blasts even if it was not directly hit.

The fall of Mosul marks the final phases or the end of the Iraqi half of the “caliphate” even though Islamic State would continue to control territory west and south of the city, the largest they had control of in both Iraq and Syria. Al-Baghdadi has according to senior US and Iraqi military intelligence sources left Mosul and is believed to be hiding in the border area between Iraq and Syria.

CH/L – nsnbc 29.06.2017



Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2017/06/29/iraqi-pm-abadi-to-deliver-victory-speech-in-west-mosul/

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