Iraqi PM: Eastern Mosul ‘Fully Liberated’ From Islamic State

Iraq’s prime minister on Tuesday declared eastern Mosul “fully liberated” from Islamic State group after a day of fierce fighting and more than three months after a massive U.S.-backed operation to retake the city began.

Iraqi forces drove Islamic State fighters from one of their last bastions in the eastern half of the city, while aid groups expressed concern for the estimated 750,000 people still in the terrorist-held west.

In his weekly news conference on Tuesday, Haider al-Abadi hailed the “unmatched heroism of all security forces factions” and public support for the operation.

“Daesh has quickly collapsed and no one expected such collapse,” al-Abadi said, using the Arabia acronym of IS. “The heroism of our security forces was behind Daesh’s defeat.”

Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and the IS’s last urban stronghold in the country, fell into the hands of the terrorists in the summer of 2014, when the group captured large swaths of northern and western Iraq.

Asked how long it will take to liberate the western side of the city, al-Abadi told The Associated Press: “I can’t tell now, but we are capable of doing so and we will do so.”

Hundreds of civilians fled from the northeastern Rashidiya neighborhood on foot as Iraqi helicopters circled overhead and fired on terrorists. At least two wounded Iraqi soldiers were brought back from the front lines after a suicide bombing.

A mortar attack in another neighborhood in eastern Mosul killed an Iraqi army colonel on Sunday, according to Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, a military spokesman.

Meanwhile, Al-Abadi renewed his promise to investigate allegations of human rights violations by security forces in conflict areas and bring those responsible to trial. His comments came a day after ordering a probe into a video on social media purportedly showing government troops beating and killing at least three IS suspects in Mosul.

The U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Lise Grande, expressed concern for civilians in the western half of Mosul in a statement signed by 20 international and local aid groups. She said the cost of food and basic goods is soaring, water and electricity are intermittent and that some residents are forced to burn furniture to keep warm.

“We hope that everything is done to protect the hundreds of thousands of people who are across the river in the west,” Grande said in the statement. “We know that they are at extreme risk and we fear for their lives.”

Mosul is the IS group’s last major urban bastion in Iraq. IS still controls large areas in neighboring Syria.

A U.S.-led coalition and Iraq’s own air force have been carrying out airstrikes in support of the Mosul operation.

In Baghdad, a car exploded inside a dealership in the eastern Nahda area on Tueesday. The Interior Ministry said a bomb had been planted on the vehicle and that the blast caused no casualties. A police official and a medical official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said the blast killed at least two people and wounded seven.

This article appeared in print on page 20 of the January 25th, 2017 edition of Hamodia.