Iraq won a victory over “brutality and terrorism” in Mosul that marks the collapse of the ISIS state, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Monday.
But with the military mission against the ISIS group in Iraq’s second city completed, the country now faces other challenges, including stabilisation and rebuilding, he said.
“Our victory today is a victory over darkness, a victory over brutality and terrorism, and I announce to the whole world today the end and failure and collapse of the mythical terrorist (ISIS) state,” Abadi announced in west Mosul.
Brig Gen Haider Fadhil of the Iraqi special forces said that even after the militants are defeated in the last pocket under their control, Iraqi forces will need to carry out clearing operations to root out sleeper cells and defuse booby traps.
Iraqi commanders believe hundreds of ISIS fighters remain inside the group’s last enclave and are using their families — including women and children — as human shields in a fight to the death. Humvees could be seen racing out of the Old City on Monday, ferrying wounded soldiers to field hospitals.
The battle for Mosul has killed thousands and displaced more than 8,97,000 people, and the United Nations said on Monday there was no end in sight to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq despite the recent gains in Mosul.
It said thousands of Mosul residents will likely remain displaced from the city after the fight is concluded because of “extensive damage caused during the conflict.”
Airstrikes, artillery and militant bombings have destroyed thousands of buildings as well as key infrastructure in Mosul. Iraq’s Interior Ministry says more than half of all buildings in western Mosul, where the fighting was heaviest, were damaged or destroyed.
Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, fell to the ISIS group in 2014, when ISIS blitzed across much of northwestern Iraq and subsequently declared a caliphate in the territory under its control in Iraq and Syria.
Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake Mosul last October and by late January, the eastern half of the city was declared liberated. The push into western Mosul began the following month. In June, Iraqi forces started the weeks long push through the Old City, Mosul’s most
congested district.
On Sunday, Iraqi soldiers celebrated recent gains, though Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi stopped short of declaring an outright victory.
On his visit to Mosul, al-Abadi met field commanders, kissed babies and toured a reopened market. But airstrikes and sniper fire continued amid the revelry.
Over the nearly nine-month campaign, Iraqi forces have reduced the ISIS hold on Mosul to less than a square kilometre (less than a mile) of territory.