The end of the "preachers" in Iraq 1/4

09/5/2017 12:00 am

Translation / سهيل نجم *
I flew to my neighborhood. No longer of elegance, in the Middle East, be you more than a light beard. He said this in a newspaper article that seemed ironic, but as it appears that everyone suddenly took off their razor blades. This change may be more than just a change in fashion, yet this personal transformation has dramatically and dramatically reflected how close Iraq is to winning the battle against Daqash, the so-called "Islamic state."
The front line this morning is a few hundred meters from the Grand Mosque in Mosul. This is where the terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the Caliphate in July 2014, declaring himself ruler.
He claimed that he was the successor of the Prophet Muhammad at that moment, as if he could not stand in his face. In December of that year, his forces were approaching the gates of the capital itself. (Who in 2004 was briefly detained by US forces as "a prisoner of little importance and seriousness").
The media stopped Fairfax as a terrorist and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott rushed to pay our troops and aircraft to the Gulf.
As we know now, this was the last point of expansion, and the capital never fell. I was hoping, very strongly, that the terrorist attack would collapse and fall. Today, al-Baghdadi chose to flee the rubble of Mosul, leaving his few forces, terrorists and defaulters vulnerable to death - whether they want or not - as "martyrs."
They now know that you can not escape from the rubble around the mosque. The battle will not end with anything other than their death. However, the last moments turn into a long and catastrophic tragedy, a horizon of murder and despair.
The remaining terrorists try to avoid being targeted from the air, bringing civilians hostage with them in the hope of avoiding bombing. People and prisoners can not escape, and different groups, such as aid workers and the Pope, are urging Iraqi forces not to
Target them.
They do not, and they will not. But the idea of ​​discrimination is not very possible, because terrorists deliberately use these people as cover so that they can continue to kill Iraqi troops as they approach.
Iraqis have not announced the casualties. However, the Golden Band, which was partly trained by the Australians, was the spearhead responsible for repelling al-Baghdadi terrorists and causing heavy losses.
The battalion usually has about 800 soldiers; instead, today, the field has about 130 soldiers. Police units took over the attack, but clearly lacked the strength of the elite forces. Above all, no one wants to die, especially when the prospects for peace are very close.
Revealing yourself can bring you death by all means. Going ahead puts you at risk of small arms fire. The disappearance in a building poses a danger because it may be aimed at a larger weapon, leaving a trail of smoke and shooting at the walls. Touching something in the wrong way may blow up a mine. Revealing yourself for more than a second may expose you to a sniper. Although there are signs that the terrorists are starting to run out of ammunition, no one wants to risk. This could be your end.
That is why Iraqi soldiers at the front feel bitterness and betrayal when they hear the comments of those who condemn the use of allied bombs. Of course no one wants to kill civilians. Our planes have rules in engagement to avoid killing civilians. We have pilots who know they will not face any backlash if they decide not to mix targets. But Iraqi soldiers on the ground know they will not be safe this night as they do not eat in a noisy hall in the Gulf. Instead, they are in a vast place of bricks ruined by shattered buildings, while the rebels are still waiting, lurking in the pits. It is not surprising that it takes time to move forward and the city is being fought from one street to another, from house to house, from a destructive room to a room.
However this time, different. Although al-Raqqa remains, it has been heavily bombed by the Russians and is no longer a city. Iraqi forces are ready to advance quickly westward towards the Syrian border after the liberation of Mosul. Apart from those trapped in the rubble, most of the terrorists who hope to be martyred have already died. It is hard to see an advocate doing anything other than decomposition, especially as the United States is now moving against this organization.
In the past, foreign countries have actively supported terrorism, either by doing nothing or by allowing money to flow. The war became a proxy war as a result of the Sunni-Shiite divide, which now cuts Islam as bitterly as the split of Catholics and Christian Protestants in the 17th century in the Thirty Years' War. Without external support, this disastrous war would not have taken this long. However, it is coming to an end. The story changes, but first there will be a lot of painful torment in attrition.
* Nicholas Stewart / The Canberra Times

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