Iranian Top Cleric Congratulates Iraq on Liberation of Mosul

In a message to Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Ayatollah Araki hailed the liberation of Mosul from “the claws of the Daesh terrorist group” as the end of the sufferings of the city’s people at the hands of the stooges of the colonial powers, Zionists and reactionary states in the region.

He further praised the Shiite leadership’s role in the fight against foreign-backed terrorists and said the Popular Mobilization Units, also known as Hashd al-Shaabi, played a prominent role in the “momentous” campaign against terrorism.

The Iranian cleric also underlined that the Islamic Republic of Iran fully supports the Iraqi premier’s sincere efforts at regional and international levels to fight against various forms of extremism that aim to destabilize the region.  

Abadi traveled to Mosul on Sunday to declare its complete liberation some three years after the strategic city fell to Daesh terrorists.

Residents of Mosul poured to the streets on Sunday, dancing and celebrating, honking horns, playing national music, raising Iraqi flags and spraying water on each other.

After eight months of difficult urban warfare, Iraqi military forces on June 29 captured the Mosul mosque at the heart of the strategic northern city, which Daesh had declared its de facto capital.

The recapture of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers north of Baghdad, marks the effective end of Daesh in the Arab country.

Daesh stronghold in Syria’s Raqqa is also close to falling.

Daesh militants made swift advances in northern and western Iraq over the summer of 2014, after capturing swaths of northern Syria.

Afterwards, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after Ayatollah Sistani issued a fatwa calling for the fight against the militants, blunted the edge of Daesh offensive and forced the terrorist group withdraw from much of the areas it had occupied.