Iraq Declares That ISIS Has Been Defeated After Hugely Symbolic Victory

The coalition forces have been locked in combat with ISIS in the city of Mosul since October of last year as they attempted to clear them out of that stronghold and after significant progress has been made in the last few months, Iraqi forces today announced that the caliphate had finally fallen.

Featured Image VIA

The announcement comes after the coalition forces seized the rubble of Mosul’s grand mosque where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the establishment of the so-called caliphate three years ago to the day. ISIS actually blew up the 12th century mosque a couple of weeks ago after it became apparent that the US backed Iraqi forces were heading towards it. They would rather have destroyed it than let it fall into enemy hands.

Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab al-Saadi said the following:

Elite special forces entered the compound and took control of the surrounding streets on Thursday afternoon after a dawn offensive.

Although there are still roughly 300 militants fighting in the Old City until the death, ISIS now only controls the area of the west side of the Tigris River, which is less than one square kilometre.

It’s expected that the battle will end in the next few days. Their fictitious state has fallen.

Image VIA

Whilst this is no doubt good news, it’s also come at a cost. Thousands of civilians have lost their lives during bombing strikes and 850,000 have lost their homes as the city was pretty much reduced to rubble. Apparently the stench of dead bodies is overwhelming according to soldiers on the frontline.

Analysts are also predicting that this won’t be the end of ISIS either. Although it may be the end of the terrorist organisation as a land holding force, many are saying that they will return with a full blown insurgency over the whole of Syria and terror attacks across the world will increase as a result of this too. Let’s fucking hope that isn’t true.

For more ISIS, check out this guy who was held captive by them and has revealed how he thinks they can be defeated. Maybe we should try listening to him.