IS prepares for life after Mosul as Iraqi morale runs low

TIL Desk/World/Mosul-Iraqi government forces are closing in on the historic Grand Mosque in Mosul, close to the heart of the old city, which remains in the grasp of Islamic State (IS). Iraqi helicopter gunships are in action, as are combat aircraft from coalition forces and the Iraqi Army hopes to gain control of the mosque imminently.

This would be a huge symbolic blow to IS. It was in the Grand Mosque that the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, announced the new “caliphate” in July 2014. He spoke at the first Friday prayers of Ramadan and it marked the start of the peak period of power for IS as it took control of much of north-western Iraq. Since then, though, the intense US-led air war has killed over 50,000 IS supporters, the expansion of the movement has stalled, and the Iraqi Army has retaken substantial territory.

So is the looming loss of the Grand Mosque the beginning of the end for IS – or is it just another turning point in a long drawn-out war? The operation to retake Mosul started in October 2016. Iraqi forces and their allies stormed towards eastern Mosul so quickly that some predicted the whole of the city would be controlled by the Iraqi government by the year’s end. But the offensive soon met a stalemate, and it was three months before the Iraqi Army reached the banks of the Tigris, which divides eastern from western Mosul.