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Iraqi forces need three months to free Iraq from IS group: PM

Xinhua, December 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

Iraqi Prime Minister Haide al-Abadi on Tuesday said the Iraqi forces will need three months to eliminate the Islamic State (IS) militant group, as battles continued to free the IS stronghold in the city of Mosul.

"In Iraq, I believe that conditions indicate that it needs three months to eliminate Daesh (IS group)," Abadi said in a press conference in Baghdad.

Abadi's comment came in response to the U.S. general commanding coalition forces in Iraq who predicted, in an interview, two years of battles to clear IS group from its twin capitals of Mosul and Raqqa, and then to fight the remnants who will likely flee to the vast empty desert between Syria and Iraq.

Abadi also said the Iraqi forces are fighting what he named "war of attrition" against the IS extremist group, asserting that the security forces have destroyed 900 car bombs in Mosul during the past two months.

After nearly two months of street-to-street battles against IS militants inside Mosul, the elite Counter-Terrorism Service retook control of 40 districts, while the army's 9th armored Division and the 1st Division recaptured six more neighborhoods in eastern of the city, according to official Iraqi statements.

The troops are facing grueling fighting inside Mosul from the extremist militants, who are carrying out brutal counter attacks in small groups moving quickly throughout the districts, and using suicide car bombs, as well as mortars and snipers, in addition to using the population of the city as human shields.

On Oct. 17, Abadi announced a major offensive to retake Mosul, the country's second largest city.

Since then, the Iraqi security forces, backed by international coalition forces, have inched to the eastern fringes of Mosul and made progress on other routes around the city.

Mosul, some 400 km north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under the IS control since June 2014, when Iraqi government forces abandoned their weapons and fled, enabling IS militants to take control of parts of Iraq's northern and western regions. Endit