Washington: Iraq will imminently announce a final victory in the nearly nine-month offensive to retake Mosul from Daesh terrorist group, a US general said, as celebrations broke out among police forces in the city.
“An announcement is imminent,” Brig Gen Robert Sofge said on Saturday. “I don’t want to speculate if it’s today or tomorrow but I think it’s going to be very soon,” he added.
The terrorists who remain in Mosul are fighting to the death in a tiny area of just two blocks of the Old City next to the Tigris, Sofge said, and those who remain are “desperate”.
The US general said some terrorists were trying to blend in with fleeing civilians by shaving their beards and changing their clothes, others were playing dead then detonating explosive vests as Iraqi forces closed in.
According to AFP, Women had blown themselves up amid throngs of displaced civilians. “They are doing as much damage as they can during these final moves,” Sofge said.
AB/IINA
