Scenes from a liberated Mosul: Mortars inside a church, C4 in a Hello Kitty Backpack and destruction everywhere
Big news in the war on terror as Iraq has declared victory over ISIS in the city of Mosul:
"It is a matter of time." Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi arrives in Mosul to announce victory over ISIS forces in the city https://t.co/PuDCPq9zvT pic.twitter.com/wwgfvldw1C
— CNN (@CNN) July 10, 2017
The NYT’sRukmini Callimachi was on hand for the liberation and sent back these photos of the complete devastation and the underhanded tactics ISIS was using in an attempt to protect themselves from coalition forces:
1. We finally reached western Mosul & were in the city when the Iraqi government declared the liberation of city: https://t.co/LcWlIFNdns
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
2. What I saw was a city that has been decimated. Street after street looked like this: pic.twitter.com/DkzNhMBcsz
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
3. US officials have compared the fight in Mosul to the intensity of warfare in World War II. In the Old City, the scene is bleak pic.twitter.com/6kr33k4Vg5
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
ISIS terrorists occupied many churches and mosques knowing coalition forces wouldn’t attack those buildings:
4. Accompanied by Iraqi troops, we clambered over rubble, skirting coils of rebar wire to reach a church occupied by ISIS: pic.twitter.com/1CZ4Y1tfo7
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
5. Churches, like mosques, were key hideouts for ISIS because they rightly assumed the Coalition would be reluctant to bomb religious sites pic.twitter.com/pz71BNzA7J
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
6. And in the nave not far from where the altar would have sat we found ISIS-manufactured mortars: pic.twitter.com/TnvbtNLkR8
— Rukmini Callimachi (@rcallimachi) July 9, 2017
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