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ISIS Lost Majority of Territory it Had Seized in Iraq | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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US-backed Iraqi forces waging the battle for Mosul. (AFP)A wide array of Iraqi and international forces are involved in the fight to retake Mosul from the Islamic State jihadist group, which overran the country’s second city in 2014. / AFP PHOTO / AHMAD AL-RUBAYE


The ISIS militant group has lost more than three-fourths of the territory it had seized when it swept across Iraq in 2014, the military announced on Tuesday.

At the height of its power, the group controlled about 40 percent of Iraq, joint operations command spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told a news conference.

That area has been whittled down to about 6.8 percent of Iraqi territory or 30,000 square kilometers after extensive military operations, which are still going on in the city of Mosul, he said.

ISIS militants still control the towns of Qaim, Tal Afar and Hawija in Iraq, as well as Raqqa, their de-facto capital in Syria.

The coalition battling ISIS is made up of tens of thousands of members of the Iraqi security forces, led by the army, and thousands of Shi’ite volunteers, many from militia groups, commonly referred to as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).

The United States and other Western countries have assisted with air support, intelligence and equipment, Rasool said.

“Our troops are very cautious in their advance,” he told reporters in Baghdad. “The biggest challenge they face is the civilians.”

The battle for Mosul, one of Iraq’s largest cities, began last October and the outcome will likely determine whether Iraq’s various sects can work together to keep the country from fracturing.

The eastern half of the city is now completely under the control of Iraqi security forces, Rasool said. But the push against ISIS in Western Mosul is bogged down with Iraqi security forces fighting in a warren of small streets in the old part of the city.

The federal police said in a statement on Tuesday they have been reinforcing their positions in Western Mosul in preparation for a push on the al-Nuri Mosque where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a so-called caliphate in 2014.

ISIS has used hundreds of car bombs along with drones rigged with explosives in Mosul. Its fighters have pulled civilians into the conflict by placing snipers in residential areas, using civilians as human shields and executing those who try to escape, coalition spokesman Col. John Dorrian said at the news conference.

Dorrian said the fight in Western Mosul had been “difficult” but said ISIS militants had no escape.

“Do not lose sight of the fact that even though the fighting is going to be very hard, this enemy is completely surrounded,” Dorrian said. “They aren’t going anywhere.”

Victory against IS has come at a staggering cost, with some towns and neighborhoods reduced to rubble by airstrikes and shelling. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been displaced, and many have been unable to return even after the fighting because of demolished infrastructure and the lingering threat of attacks.