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by Tony Gamal-Gabriel Agence France-Presse MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) – A budding Iraqi filmmaker yells “action!” as an actress clambers over rubble in Mosul’s Old City, proud students of a nascent film school in the former jihadist bastion. Mosul still bears the scars of the brutal reign of the Islamic State group, who overran the northern Iraqi city in 2014 and imposed their ultra-conservative interpretation of Islamic law. They destroyed everything from centuries-old churches to musical […]
by Sylvie Lanteaume Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – The United States is considering a stepped-up military presence in Africa to pursue Islamic State group jihadists looking for new havens after the fall of their “caliphate,” American officials say. After IS lost its de facto capital Raqa in Syria this month, and its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul earlier, the group “has aspirations to establish a larger presence” in Africa, the US military’s top officer General Joseph […]
MOSUL, Iraq (Reuters) — After a long and fierce battle that finally led to the liberation of Mosul, Iraqi forces have started clearing up the war-torn city which has been reduced into a wasteland of rubble after months of brutal fighting. The Old City, Mosul’s historical heart, has been among the hardest hit areas by the house-to-house fighting backed by airstrikes, artillery and heavy machine guns used to uproot the Islamic State (IS) militants, who […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) – Amnesty International on Tuesday called for a commission to investigate crimes against civilians in Mosul by all sides in the battle to liberate the Iraqi city from jihadists. “The horrors that the people of Mosul have witnessed and the disregard for human life by all parties to this conflict must not go unpunished,” said Lynn Maalouf, director of Middle East research at Amnesty International. “An independent commission must immediately be […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump hailed Iraq’s “victory” over the Islamic State group in Mosul Monday, claiming the northern city’s liberation showed the war against the jihadis was being won. “The victory in Mosul” signals Islamic State’s “days in Iraq and Syria are numbered,” Trump said in a statement praising Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. “Today Iraqi security forces supported by the United States and the global coalition, liberated the city of Mosul […]
by Tony Gamal-Gabriel with W.G. Dunlop in Baghdad Agence France-Presse MOSUL, Iraq – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over “brutality and terrorism” in Mosul on Monday, announcing his forces had ended the Islamic State group’s rule over the country’s second city. Standing with members of the security forces, Abadi hailed the retaking of Mosul — where Islamic State dealt Iraqi troops a devastating defeat three years ago — as a key moment in […]
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) – The European Union on Sunday hailed the defeat of the Islamic State group in Mosul as a “decisive step” in fighting terrorism but called on Iraqis to work together to improve their country. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi earlier announced that pro-government forces had retaken the second city from IS after a months-long battle that killed thousands of civilians and forced nearly a million people from their homes. “The recovery […]
by Layal Abou Rahal with Ahmad Mousa in Mosul Agence France Presse BEIRUT, Lebanon (AFP) — United States-backed forces have penetrated the heavily fortified heart of jihadist bastion Raqa for the first time, in a key milestone in the war against the Islamic State group in Syria. Air strikes by the US-led coalition battling IS punched two holes in the mediaeval wall surrounding the Old City of Raqa, allowing fighters of the Syrian Democratic […]
by Emmanuel Duparcq Agence France Presse MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) — Iraqi soldiers snap victorious “selfies” and pose with a captured Islamic State group flag at the Mosul mosque where jihadist chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi once spoke. “Where is Baghdadi?” they say, taunting the absent jihadist leader at the site of his triumphal 2014 appearance, the only time he is known to have appeared in public as the head of IS’s now-crumbling cross-border “caliphate.” They hold […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — Journalist Veronique Robert, wounded in the same landmine blast that killed two colleagues in the Iraqi city of Mosul earlier this week, has died, employers France Televisions announced Saturday. Robert had been operated on in Iraq and then flown back for treatment in France overnight Thursday to Friday, but died of her wounds, the public broadcaster said in a statement. French colleague Stephan Villeneuve, 48, and Iraqi Kurdish reporter Bakhtiyar […]
