Big news in the war on terror as Iraq has declared victory over ISIS in the city of Mosul:
"It is a matter of time." Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi arrives in Mosul to announce victory over ISIS forces in the city https://t.co/PuDCPq9zvT pic.twitter.com/wwgfvldw1C
— CNN (@CNN) July 10, 2017
The NYT’s Rukmini Callimachi was on hand for the liberation and sent back these photos of the complete devastation and the underhanded tactics ISIS was using in an attempt to protect themselves from coalition forces:
1. We finally reached western Mosul & were in the city when the Iraqi government declared the liberation of city: https://t.co/LcWlIFNdns
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
2. What I saw was a city that has been decimated. Street after street looked like this: pic.twitter.com/DkzNhMBcsz
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
3. US officials have compared the fight in Mosul to the intensity of warfare in World War II. In the Old City, the scene is bleak pic.twitter.com/6kr33k4Vg5
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
ISIS terrorists occupied many churches and mosques knowing coalition forces wouldn’t attack those buildings:
4. Accompanied by Iraqi troops, we clambered over rubble, skirting coils of rebar wire to reach a church occupied by ISIS: pic.twitter.com/1CZ4Y1tfo7
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
5. Churches, like mosques, were key hideouts for ISIS because they rightly assumed the Coalition would be reluctant to bomb religious sites pic.twitter.com/pz71BNzA7J
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
6. And in the nave not far from where the altar would have sat we found ISIS-manufactured mortars: pic.twitter.com/TnvbtNLkR8
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
And check out this horror:
7. Eerily we found a pink backpack (yes – pink) decorated with a kitten (yes – a kitten) which contained sachets of white explosive powder pic.twitter.com/ySLkDHBtKU
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
8. Soldiers identified it as C4 (I can't confirm that). I've seen this before in ISIS weapons factories. Just not in a Hello Kitty backpack pic.twitter.com/0vJ8UoTYve
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
Callimachi went on to report that Iraqi members of ISIS were able to blend in with refugees and flee the city, but foreign fighters were stuck with no escape:
9. Just outside backdoor of church we found the bodies of 2 slain ISIS fighters covered in blankets.Troops ID'ed them as a Russian & a Tajik pic.twitter.com/RmxNTR1PiW
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
10. Soldiers told us that in the last days of this fight, when they killed ISIS fighters they often found bodies that didn't look Arab
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
11. They believe Iraqi members of ISIS are slipping out by shaving beards & mingling with escaping civilians. Foreign fighters have no out
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
And although victory was declared, fighting continued:
12. We'd been inside the church for probably 45 min when @Andy_MillsNYT checked his phone & saw that our colleagues had moved this alert: pic.twitter.com/q8y50yYm4Y
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
13. Yet whole time we were in Mosul, we heard the occasional thud of airstrikes & hellfire missiles as well as intermittent outgoing gunfire pic.twitter.com/u6X8ozBgGQ
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
14. We asked to go to the front & were not allowed to go all the way. Troops told us that fighting was ongoing. One of the explosions we saw pic.twitter.com/ImuoxNUyGl
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
15. It's clear that most of Mosul has been freed but its far from secure. While this is a major moment for Iraq, I doubt this fight is over pic.twitter.com/AVWLO5xx80
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
No, it’s not over.
***