Sources: Islamic State seniors instructed to withdraw from Mosul to Syria’s Raqqa
Checkpoint belonging to the Islamic State.
Alsumaria News quoted sources in Mosul on Tuesday saying that senior leaders of “Jaish al-Khilafa” (Army of the Caliphate) received directives from the extremist group’s military command in Raqqa to pull out immediately from Mosul to the Syrian city which lies by the Iraqi borders.
They were ordered to evacuate and burn their headquarters as fast as possible, the source claimed.
The news comes as Iraqi government forces took over the government complex in western Mosul, a major victory that security generals say will be highly decisive in ending the battle against IS in their favor. Security forces took over eastern Mosul in January after three months of encounters, and are currently pushing to clear the western region from the extremist group.
Since the campaign for western Mosul began, Iraqi and U.S.-led coalition generals spoke of fast collapses in IS’s defense lines and shrinking in the close circle of aids around the group’s supreme leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
The Syrian city of Raqqa is also a major target for U.S.- and Turkish-backed paramilitary forces and Russian-backed Syrian government troops. On Monday, U.S.-supported Kurdish Syrian militias said they took over a road between Raqqa and neighboring Deir al-Zour.