Daesh Leader Rallies His Militants in Mosul

Local Editor

The head of the Takfiri Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"] Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi called on his insurgents to resist as Iraqi forces were poised Thursday to enter the city of Mosul where he declared a "caliphate" two years ago.

The appeal was made in an audio recording released on the Internet and purported to be by the elusive leader of Daesh, his first message this year.

"Do not retreat," he said. Baghdadi further urged his militia men to keep on fighting and hold their grounds, referring to the northern Iraqi province of which Mosul is the capital.

In June 2014, days after extremist militants swept across swathes of Iraq, he made a rare public appearance in Mosul and announced the creation of what he called an "Islamic ‘state'" straddling Iraq and Syria.

The "caliphate" has been shrinking steadily since last year and Iraqi forces earlier this week reached Mosul, the extremists' last major stronghold in Iraq.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi troops and allied forces, backed by the US-led coalition and its warplanes, launched a massive offensive on Mosul on Oct. 17.

It was not immediately possible for AFP to authenticate Baghdadi's recording, but leading experts of the extremist organization did not appear to doubt it.

In a related notion, rumors had abounded about the Iraqi Takfiri leader's health and movements but his whereabouts are unclear.

Daesh has had a tendency to fall back when massively outnumbered lately, giving up some of its emblematic bastions -- such as Fallujah in Iraq and Dabiq in Syria -- without following its own apocalyptic ideology of fighting to the bitter end.

In his latest message, which is undated but makes references to events that are at most a few weeks old, Baghdadi calls for attacks against Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Ankara has troops stationed at a base just outside Mosul and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's escalating rhetoric has raised fears of a unilateral Turkish intervention in Iraq.

Baghdadi also said that his followers who could not travel to Syria or Iraq should aim for Libya and urged all Daesh militant men to remain united in adversity.

He attempted to stir up sectarian resentment by referring to religious flags and slogans of Shiite fighters among the Iraqi forces and by accusing the country's Sunni politicians of treason.

The recapture of Mosul by Iraqi forces could spell the end of the group's days as a land-holding force in Iraq and deal a death blow to the "caliphate".

The US-led coalition estimates the number of Daesh militants holed up in Mosul at 3,000 to 5,000 and had warned the battle of Mosul could be long and difficult.

Iraqi forces advancing on Mosul from three main fronts had retaken dozens of villages and towns scattered over hundreds of square miles in just over two weeks.

Earlier this week, federal forces reached the eastern edge of Mosul and Wednesday were clearing the most recently reconquered areas to set up a breach of the city.

Gunfire echoed across the village of Gogjali on Mosul's eastern edge Wednesday as elite Iraqi forces worked to clear the area.

Civilians, who emerged cautiously from their homes, some carrying white flags, told tales of Daesh brutality.

"They confiscated my tractor and then threw me in jail for six days. They beat me and when I got out I couldn't do my work anymore," said Yusef Fariq.

The 40-year-old farmer, speaking from his home in Gogjali and surrounded by his mother and two sons, still had the long beard Daesh militants forced him to grow.

"They were killing us, always asking for money, we couldn't go anywhere. We went through hell," his mother said.

The electric hair clipper a member of the Iraqi Special Forces gave to residents of Gogjali was the village's most popular item as men who had been forced to grow beards by Daesh were finally able to shave.

With an assault on the city looking imminent, aid groups said they were "bracing for the worst" and warned that the fate of a million-plus civilians still believed trapped inside Mosul was in the balance.

They had called for corridors allowing the safe escape of civilians to be opened.

Daesh militants had been rounding up residents in villages and using them as cover to move across the battlefield, prompting fears they would systematically hide behind "human shields" to defend the city.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team