Iraq declares end of caliphate after capture of historic Mosul mosque

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters




Thu Jun 29, 2017 | 8:49am EDT

After eight months of grinding urban warfare, Iraqi government troops on Thursday captured the ruined mosque in Mosul from where Islamic State proclaimed its self-styled caliphate three years ago, the Iraqi military said.

Iraqi authorities expect the long battle for Mosul to end in the coming days as the remaining Islamic State fighters are now bottled up in just a handful of neighborhoods of the Old City.

The seizure of the 850-year-old Grand al-Nuri Mosque is a huge symbolic victory for the Iraqi forces fighting to recapture Mosul, which had served as Islamic State's de facto capital in Iraq. "Their fictitious state has fallen," an Iraqi military spokesman, Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, told state TV.

The insurgents blew up the medieval mosque and its famed leaning minaret a week ago as U.S.-backed Iraqi forces started a push in its direction. Their black flag had been flying from al-Hadba (The Hunchback) minaret since June 2014.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-iraq-mosul-idUSKBN19K0YZ?il=0

[IronLionZion]

1. I hope this is not another "Mission Accomplished"

it's not over until it's over. All those assholes (at least the commanders, recruiters, and propaganda folks) need to be captured or killed.

[AJT]

2. It will be touted as a victory only possible under 45s phenomenal leadership

[DetlefK]

4. Btw, when can we see Trump's ingenious plan how to defeat ISIS?

I mean...
ISIS has long run out of banks it can rob.
ISIS is running out of people it can tax.
ISIS is running out of art it can sell.
ISIS is running out of ways to sell oil.
Travelling to Syria to join ISIS has become harder.
All those specialists, doctors and engineers that ISIS wanted to recruit to build a self-sustaining caliphate, those are not the kind of people who join ISIS. Only people who have so utterly lost hope for a good life that they steer towards religious extremism join ISIS.

Kurds from the North, Iraqis from the East, Assad and Russians from the West... I doubt that ISIS lasts 2 more years.

[IronLionZion]

5. He can't share the super secret plan!

It has to be secret or they will know what's coming you silly liberal. Once ISIS is defeated, then he might share the secret plan to defeat them...if he feels like it.

You are entitled to NOTHING!

[OregonBlue]

7. I feel so sorry for the people of Mosul. I don't think they care who claims the

victory. They just want the war over and to be able to return to their homes and start rebuilding their crushed lives.

[Hortensis]

3. Tragic great news. How glad those brave fighters

must be. And how sad.

[rollin74]

6. good news

Raqqa won't be too far behind

the "caliphate" is done