US-backed Iraqi forces are closing in on the last Islamic State-held enclave in the Old City of Mosul, where the fighters of the extreme Muslim group are preparing for their last stand. The Iraqi forces advanced from all directions toward the Old City, in a bid to tighten the noose over the Islamic State, which ironically has decided to position itself in Mosul’s medieval mosque, where the group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his Muslim Caliphate in July 2014.
“We are at our defensive lines as you see behind me, close to Nabi Sheet street to the left and Daesh is just 150 metres away, in front of us. They (Islamic State) are trying to advance and break our defense lines, but we respond with sniper fire and machine-gun fire. We are fully ready and prepared to defeat them and save the world from them and the evil they represent,” said Qais Jabbar, Federal Police Lieutenant.
The Islamic State is putting tough resistance, carrying out repeated attacks in attempts to break the Iraqi forces’ lines of defense, south of the Old City. Over the past few days, the militants ordered dozens of families to move into the Old City to prevent them from escaping toward the Iraqi forces preparing to make their final advance that would effectively end the Islamic State’s rule of Mosul.