ISIS’s last stand?
It’s taken a long time, but finally Iraqi forces – with considerable US help, of course – are poised to retake Mosul from ISIS; a good two-and-a-half years after the militia overran Iraq’s second biggest city and put thousands, predominantly Shi’a, fighters and civilians to the sword. The advance is understandably slow, especially since approximately 1.5m civilians are still locked in, providing the ideal human shields that ISIS fighters always exploit when they are flushed out of one of their prized strongholds. Then there is the selective nature of the US assistance; staying well clear of assisting any friends of Iran that are busy fighting the same enemy.
Kurdish fighters in the area have claimed Abu Bakar al Baghdadi is still holed up in Mosul. If true, that will make the fighting only more intense. If he hasn’t left yet, it is unlikely that he will be able to now; considering how the city is surrounded from all sides. Either way, one essential phase of the international, not just Iraqi, fight against ISIS is nearing its end. The loss of Mosul will deliver a serious blow to the so-called militia, especially if the caliph is also dispatched. ISIS fighters will, of course, fall back across the not-so-relevant border into Syria and take up one last stand in and around Raqqa.
Sadly, though, even when – no longer if – both Mosul and Raqqa are back in Iraqi and Syrian hands respectfully, there will be no justice for the thousands killed, hundreds of thousands maimed and wounded, and millions displaced by ISIS’s savage advance over the last two-to-three years. That these radical jihadis virtually wiped out a generation of able bodied men belonging to other sects and religions, and sold their women as slaves in the flesh trade, not to mention turning their children into servants or child-soldiers, will be but a footnote in the recorded history of this terrible war. If the wider world were really concerned about them, somebody would have acted a long, long time ago and killers of the likes of ISIS and al Qaeda would never have been allowed to become so strong.
