“The liberation of Mosul not only means the biggest defeat of Daesh over the last three years, but also represents a major development in the Iraqi and Syrian war against Daesh,” Hamid Baeedinejad said in a post on social media.
The diplomat added that Major General Soleimani has undoubtedly played an unparalleled role in the major development.
When Major General Soleimani shouldered the responsibility of an advisory mission in Iraq at the request of the country’s government, Daesh had been only sixty kilometers away from Baghdad and was considering capturing the city, he said.
Daesh militants made swift advances in northern and western Iraq over the summer of 2014, after capturing swaths of northern Syria.
However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after Ayatollah Sistani issued the fatwa calling for the fight against the militants, blunted the edge of Daesh offensive and forced the terrorist group to withdraw from much of the areas it had occupied.
Iraqi military forces on June 29 captured the Mosul mosque at the heart of the northern city, which Daesh had declared its de facto capital.
Some two weeks later, Daesh is on its last legs as Iraqi forces are expected to win back full control of the city of Mosul, the Takfiri terrorist group’s last urban stronghold in the Arab country in the next few hours.
“We are seeing now the last meters and then final victory will be announced,” Iraq’s state TV reported on Saturday. “It’s a matter of hours.”
Fighting currently rages on in Mosul’s densely-populated Old City, where Daesh elements have put up stiff resistance in the face of advancing Iraqi army soldiers and allied fighters.
Iraq’s state TV quoted a military spokesman as saying that the militants’ defense lines were collapsing.
Reports coming out of the city say Daesh terrorists are fighting for each meter with bombers, snipers and grenades, forcing Iraqi security forces to fight house-to-house in the Old city.
“They (terrorists) never surrender. Old Mosul will be their graveyard,” said Iraqi General Abdel Ghani al-Assadi, a commander in Iraq’s elite Counter Terrorism Service.
Daesh stronghold in Syria’s Raqqa is also close to falling.