Telling It Like It Is: ISIL’s Days in Mosul Are Numbered

Rasa - To shed light on the serial setbacks and failures of ISIL in Iraq, particularly over the past few weeks, the following news headlines can be highlighted:

News ID: 428023

Date: 09 March 2017 - 23:47

RNA - Iraqi Army Retakes Gov’t Buildings as Battle against ISIL Intensifies

Iraq's Hashd Al-Shaabi Makes Fresh Gains West of Mosul

Iraqi Forces Battling out ISIL, More Districts Liberated

Iraqi Forces Retake Mosul Prison, Museum

Iraqi Troops Seize Road West of Mosul

ISIL’s Defeat Is Inevitable: PM Abadi Says During City Visit

Iraqi Forces Hoist Flag over Mosul

All these great news headlines and stories share one thing in common: ISIL’s days in Mosul are numbered. Keep in mind that Ramadi, Tikrit, Sinjar, Mosul, Fallujah, Palmyra, Kobani, and Tal Abyad are just some of the names of the most strategic cities and neighborhoods that until last year were under the terrorist group’s control. Also keep in mind that Mosul is Iraq's second-largest city and was the last major urban center controlled by ISIL. But now only Raqqa and parts of Mosul remain occupied, among others.

To shed light on the serial setbacks and failures of ISIL, consider the following too:

1- The “fakestream” media in the West is right to say that the anti-ISIL coalition has played a major role in containing ISIL in both Iraq and Syria. However, the term “anti-ISIL coalition” does in no way refer to the United States and its coalition of regime changers. It refers to Iraq, Syria, Russia, the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Shiite-Sunni mobilization units.

2- By President Trump’s own account, the United States and its allies are yet to win any major war in the region, including making any sensible achievement in containing and ultimately defeating ISIL. There is irrefutable evidence to suggest that the US-led coalition makes moves just against the goals it was formed for. Their role in not only turning a blind eye to ISIL’s takeover of vast swaths of Syria and Iraq, but also exacerbating the refugee crisis by their callous treatment of Syria refugees, is no longer under-reported by international media and journalists who cover the twin conflicts.

3- National mobilization against ISIL in Iraq and Syria – politically and militarily - did not require the settlement of political tensions between different groups and parties first. All that’s needed was to cleanse the infiltrators and traitors to strike unity and coordination among the active sides.

4- In its current shape and form, ISIL cannot be defeated by a single army. It took a religious decree from top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani as well as a group of armies and volunteer mobilization units to defeat the Medieval Caliphate. Isolated by the United States and allies, Iraq and Syria had to ask Iran, Russia and the Lebanese Hezbollah to support them in the Real War on Terror – Washington’s chagrin notwithstanding.

All this and more is the reason why international news outlets and Iraqi officials believe the self-declared leader of ISIL, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has left operational commanders behind with diehard followers to fight the battle of Mosul, and is now hiding out in the desert, focusing mainly on his own survival.

Here, there is no need to confirm the whereabouts of the head-chopping caliph though, who declared himself the ruler of all Muslims from Mosul's Great Mosque – not under Iraqi Army control - after his goons swept through northern Iraq in 2014. That’s all over now. Great Mosque was taken back few weeks ago. An absence of official communication from the group's leadership and the loss of key territories in Mosul suggest he has abandoned the city, by far the largest population center his goons had ever held.

In any case, the latest in a series of recent gains that have increased pressure on the foreign-backed zealots, who took Mosul by storm three years ago, has to be this: Iraqi armed forces have raised the nation's flag over government buildings in Western Mosul, fending off withering counterattacks from ISIL insurgents being driven from the crucial stronghold.

No doubt, the international civil society is extremely delighted for the people of Mosul. They are more than ever confident that those civilians who still remain trapped in their homes will soon be liberated from years of terror and occupation. The people of Western Mosul can make this clear better than anyone else that America is not winning, America is only clinging to its lies, and that America is not cleaning its plate first. It is their belief that only the Iraqi Army, popular forces, and their immediate Iranian allies are winning the key battle for Mosul. Because the allied forces consider every Iraqi to be family, every Iraqi is winning too. That’s something we should all unite around.

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