With the great battle for the recapture of Mosul that grows ever closer, losing the high symbolic value of Dabiq and many militiamen who lost their lives while trying to resist the advancing Iraqi Shiite militias aided by regular army and Kurdish forces, it seems that for the self-styled Islamic State has reached the end. After more than two years in which entire territories of Syria and Iraq had been conquered and subjugated to men in black of the self-styled Caliphate, in recent months thanks to u.s.-led international coalition air raids the regular forces are regaining lost territories and freeing the many civilians who are still being held hostage.
Around Mosul Iraqi regular forces and Shiite and Kurdish militias supporting Islamist militia‘re flanking us so as to prevent them from escaping when the time comes the battle itself: it is estimated that in the only city of Mosul there are still approximately 6000 jihadists barricaded and the men in black will not surrender easily. The Islamists have barricaded themselves in the houses of civilians and are ready to use innocent women and children as human shields so as not to fall into the hands of Iraqi regular army’s military perosonnel.
About 5000 people have already fled the combat zone and it is feared that if the battle would last long there might be a real humanitarian disaster as happened in Syrian cities besieged in recent months. In Mosul the life for civilians has already reached prohibitive conditions: people are being taken as hostages, no one can leave the House, lacks all the basic necessities, government services are non-existent and there are already many cases of poisoning from contaminated water.
If Mosul will finally be liberated quickly from Islamist militants, this could really be the end of the self-styled Islamic State, which many victims claimed in the last two years, both in the Middle East and Europe.
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