Brigadier General Yahya Rasul, spokesman for the Iraqi Joint Special Operations Command, told Sputnik Arabic that Daesh militants now control just half of Mosul’s Old City.
According to the general, there are currently no more than a few dozen of terrorists still left in the city, and their complete and utter defeat is inevitable.
"The only reason why the military hasn’t completely eradicated them by now is that, according to the information we have, all of them wear ‘suicide belts’. The Iraqi forces proceed carefully in order to avoid exposing the civilians to this additional hazard," Rasul said.
Meanwhile, Raid al Azawi who works as faculty at the American University of Iraq, told Sputnik that after Mosul is liberated from Daesh, Iraq will find itself "in need of the US military presence in the country."
"It was the American invasion of 2003 that sparked the terrorism crisis," he said, pointing out that the Iraqi army, crippled by the US, was left unable to repel the Daesh advance.
"I do not call for the US occupation of our land, but we need to understand that the Iraqi army currently lacks the capability to achieve a complete victory over terrorism. Daesh now maintains a presence in all parts of Iraq. Also, Baghdad now requires assistance because the country still doesn’t have a real united army that one can rely upon in the face of possible foreign and domestic threats," he said.
