Iraqi forces pushed deeper into the historical heart of Mosul on Sunday in their fight to retake it from Islamic State militants, with one Baghdad commander saying that 65 to 70 percent of the Old City had been liberated.
Lieutenant ColonelSalam al-Obeidi said, “There is less than a square kilometer left to retake.” He estimated that there were only “a few hundred” Islamic State fighters left in the city.
Another commander, Staff Lieutenant-General Abdulwahab al-Saadim, predicted, “We will finish the operation within a few days. The end is going to be very soon, it will take days.” Iraqi troops have led the fight to retake Mosul, held by the militants since 2014, but a U.S.-led international coalition has provided air and ground support.
Eight month battle
Much of the Old City has been devastated in eight months of fighting, including the landmark 850-year-old Grand al-Nuri mosque and its leaning 45-meter minaret that jihadists blew up four days ago.
With the Iraqi advance, some in Mosul celebrated the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, with children playing in squares on the eastern side of the city that had been liberated months ago.
In a statement, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said, “As our heroic forces are closer to declaring final victory over the Daesh (Islamic State) gangs, I offer my most sincere congratulations for Eid al-Fitr.”
Even with the possibility of an imminent Iraqi takeover of Mosul, one U.S. analyst voiced concerns that Baghdad is not prepared to assume governmental control of the city.
Michael O’Hanlon, director of foreign policy research at Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, told Alhurra, the U.S.-owned Arabic-language satellite TV network, that he is worried “about the potential of another extremist Sunni group emerging. Defeating one extremist group doesn’t stop the surge.”
O’Hanlon said that after the liberation of Mosul, “governance must be preserved and all groups must have access to governance…. Otherwise Mosul can become a place where extremists can re-emerge.
WATCH: The Brookings Institution’s Michael O’Hanlon on the importance of good governance after Mosul falls
“From what I hear, there is no particular concept on how to govern Mosul that’s competent and inclusive,” O’Hanlon said. “It is not enough to have a couple of Sunnis in the government. People have to be governing, appointing jobs, building the police force. We’re going to have to manage frustration and grievances and the way to do that is to have an inclusive government.”
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