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IS fighters left in Mosul will die, says US envoy McGurk IS fighters left in Mosul will die, says US envoy McGurk
(about 1 hour later)
Any so-called Islamic State (IS) fighters left in Mosul will die in the Iraqi city, a US envoy co-ordinating the offensive has said. Any Islamic State militants left in the Iraqi city of Mosul will die there, the US envoy to the multinational coalition battling the jihadist group says.
Brett McGurk, the senior US official in the counter-IS coalition, issued the warning after Iraqi forces cut off the last road out of the city, trapping IS fighters inside. Brett McGurk said coalition and Iraqi government forces were "committed to not just defeating them in Mosul, but making sure these guys cannot escape".
The jihadists have held Mosul, Iraq's second city, since 2014. He issued the warning after the Iraqi army's ninth division cut off the last road out of the west of the city.
But Iraqi forces have managed to retake large areas in a months-long offensive. Mosul is the last major urban IS stronghold in Iraq.
They now control all of Mosul's eastern side, and the latest US-backed push against IS - which began on 5 March - has forced the extremists from key locations in the west, including the main local government headquarters and the famed Mosul museum. But Iraqi forces, backed by coalition air strikes and military advisers on the ground, have managed to retake large areas in the past five months.
There were believed to be no more than 2,500 IS fighters left in Mosul and the nearby town of Tal Afar, a US defence official said last week. They now control all of Mosul's eastern side, and have driven IS militants from several western districts since mid-February.
Heavy fighting continued over the weekend, with Mr McGurk telling reporters in Baghdad on Sunday "just last night, the ninth Iraqi army division... cut off the last road out of Mosul". "Mosul's liberation is increasingly in sight, albeit with increasingly difficult fighting ahead,'' Mr McGurk told reporters on Sunday.
He added "Any of the fighters who are left in Mosul, they're going to die there, because they're trapped. He said Iraqi forces were retaking "some of the most difficult ground that we knew would have to be reclaimed".
"So we are very committed to not just defeating them in Mosul, but making sure these guys cannot escape." He added: "They're doing this in a dense urban environment facing a suicidal enemy that's using civilians as shields.''
Staff Major General Maan al-Saadi, of Iraq's elite Counter-Terrorism Service, said government forces now controlled "more than a third" of western Mosul. A US defence official said last week that there were no more than 2,500 IS fighters left in Mosul and Tal Afar, a town about 60km (37 miles) to the west.
He said he believed the fight would be easier than in eastern Mosul, which took 100 days to reclaim after the offensive was launched in October, finally falling in January. In a message in November, days after the government offensive began, IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi appeared to urge those still in Mosul to fight to the death.
However, federal police and rapid response units say they have now entered the Bab al-Tob area of the Old City, where the fight is expected to be tough due to its narrow alleyways through which armoured vehicles cannot pass. "Remain steadfast... Know that the price of remaining in your land with your honour is a thousand times better than the price of retreating from it in humiliation," he said.
Meanwhile, Joint Operations Command spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Rasool said he believed IS was weakening. Baghdadi is believed to have left Mosul before it was surrounded and is thought to be alive.
But he added: "The battle is not easy... we are fighting an irregular enemy who hides among the citizens and uses tactics of booby-trapping, explosions and suicide bombers, and the operation is taking place with precision to preserve the lives of the citizens." Staff Major General Maan al-Saadi, of Iraq's elite Counter-Terrorism Service, meanwhile estimated that government forces now controlled "more than a third" of western Mosul.
It is thought there may be as many as 600,000 civilians still trapped in IS-controlled areas of Mosul. He added that he believed the fight would be easier than in the east, which took 100 days to reclaim after the offensive was launched in mid-October.
The statements came a day after Iraqi forces said that a "large mass grave" had been found near the city. However, federal police and rapid response units say they have now entered the Bab al-Tob area of the old city, where the fight is expected to be tough due to its narrow alleyways. Armoured vehicles cannot pass though them.
It contained the remains of hundreds of "civilian prisoners who were executed by [IS] gangs after they controlled the prison during their occupation of Mosul". Iraqi military Joint Operations Command spokesman Brig Gen Yahya Rasool also said he believed IS resistance had "begun to weaken in a big way".
It is thought there may be as many as 600,000 civilians still trapped in IS-controlled areas of Mosul. More than 65,000 have fled their homes in the past two weeks.
The comments came a day after Iraqi forces said a "large mass grave" had been found near Badoush prison, where hundreds of mostly Shia Muslim prisoners are believed to have been summarily killed by militants when the city fell in 2014.