Qayyarah: Jihadist leaders are fleeing Mosul, a top US general in the coalition battling the Islamic State group said on Wednesday as Iraqi forces closed in on the northern city. Representational image. Mosul was where Islamic State supremo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared his “caliphate” two years ago but is now the group’s last major stronghold in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who announced the launch of a broad offensive... 

BAGHDAD/ERBIL: Residents of Mosul said ISIS was using civilians as human shields as Iraqi and Kurdish forces captured outlying villages in their advance on the terrorists‘ stronghold. Around 1.5 million people are still living in Mosul. The leader of ISIS and one of its main explosives experts were reported to be among thousands of the hardline terrorists still in Mosul, suggesting the group would go to great lengths to fend off any ground... 

The end of the Islamic State (IS) is near. If not dead, its Caliph would soon become a homeless tyrant armed with a radical ideology that threatened doomsday, but in the end brought about its own downfall. Iraqi army moving to attack Islamic State militants. Countdown to the end of the state – though, not the terror organisation-started with two contemporaneous events during the past few hours. One, Syrian rebels made a lightening advance to their...