Days of Islamic State Are Numbered: UN Envoy
The military campaign to oust Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) terrorists from Iraq is nearly won, but the humanitarian crisis is expected to continue for months, if not years, the United Nations top official for the country said Thursday.
“Three months after the Mosul military operation started, combat operations in the eastern part of Mosul have come to an end,” the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Ján Kubiš, told the UN Security Council during a briefing.
He said that the Iraqi forces, with significant support from its international partners, especially the United States, will remain engaged in complex urban operations, in particular inside the old city in western Mosul.
Meanwhile, the U.S. President Donald Trump has asked his Secretary of Defense to submit a preliminary draft of the plan within 30 days to defeat the terror outfit ISIS (or ISIL).
According to a White House communique issued Saturday, ISIS is not the only threat from radical Islamic terrorism that the U.S faces, but it is among the most vicious and aggressive.
“It is also attempting to create its own state, which ISIS claims as a ‘caliphate.’ But there can be no accommodation or negotiation with it. For those reasons, I am directing my Administration to develop a comprehensive plan to defeat ISIS,” Trump said.
[ How President Trump Plans to Defeat ISIS Terrorists ]
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Islamic State (IS) is a militant organization.
With a strong force of over 70,000 fighters under its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIL is attacking different nations with the aim to set up a large Islamic State called the Caliphate. It is believed that now ISIS has a presence in more than 30 countries of the world.
According to an advance summary of the 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan submitted by relief aid partners in December, at least $985 million is required this year to reach the 5.8 million most vulnerable Iraqis. Of this, $331 million is being sought specifically for the Mosul response.
The UN reports that over 1.4 million displaced Iraqis have returned to their homes, including one million in the past 12 months.
