IRGC Quds Force Advisor:

ISIL Fully Surrounded in Mosul

Rasa - Brigadier General Iraj Masjedi, a senior advisor to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani, declared that the Iraqi army and popular forces have purged all regions near Mosul of terrorists, saying that the ISIL is now under the siege.

News ID: 427009

Date: 31 January 2017 - 21:31

RNA - "At present, all cities and villages near Mosul have been fully cleansed and the (army and popular) forces are reinforcing their units to set Mosul fully free," General Masjedi said on Tuesday.

Masjedi has been named in earlier news reports, and by himself, as Iran's new ambassador to Baghdad but the Iranian foreign ministry has not yet confirmed his appointment.

Noting that the Iraqi forces have cut off the ISIL's connections from behind as well as its supply routes from Iraq to Syria, he said, "The ISIL is under full siege."

His remarks came as the Iraqi warplanes airdropped tens of thousands of leaflets over the city of Mosul in Nineveh province on Tuesday, declaring that the country's army will start a new phase of military operations against the ISIL terrorist group in the coming days.

The residents of Mosul have been informed in the leaflets that the army's military operation in the Western part of the city is imminent.

The report came as Iraqi forces say they are progressing steadily in the operations to liberate the ISIL-held city of Mosul from its terrorist occupants.

After months of preparation, Iraqi army soldiers, backed by volunteer fighters and Kurdish Peshmerga forces, launched an operation on October 17 to retake Mosul from ISIL terrorists.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has vowed that Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and ISIL's last urban stronghold in the country, will be fully recaptured soon.

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