Daesh is collapsing: Iraqi PM Abadi

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, whose country is engaged in war with Daesh, says the terrorist group is seeing its organization collapse around it.

“We have seen the whole organization collapsing in terms of standing in the face of our own armed forces,” al-Abadi said in an interview with the Associated Press. “The success of liberating a huge area indicates that Daesh does not have the gut now or the motivation to fight as they were doing before.”

The Iraqi forces are currently involved in a crucial operation to retake the only urban area under Daesh control, namely the city of Mosul, which the terrorist group has declared its so-called headquarters in Iraq.

In the interview, Abadi said Mosul is of utmost importance.

Referring to Daesh, he said, “This is like a snake, if you hit it in the middle or the tail, it’s no use. I have to hit it on the head. And the head of this terrorist organization is Mosul. If I remove Mosul from them, this is a huge blow... to its efforts to recruit young people from different countries of the world.”

The Iraqi prime minister said that the operation to retake Mosul is a “difficult” one even as he said it has been going on more quickly than expected.

“This is the first time where we are liberating a city or a place where civilians are staying at home,” he said. “It’s tough, it’s difficult because the security forces tell me they are being fired at from places where there are civilians and they cannot reply in kind. So, this is a very tough thing.”

SS