CGTN America
Civilians walk in a neighborhood recently retaken by Iraqi security forces during fighting against Islamic State militants in Mosul, Iraq, Thursday, June 29, 2017. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
After eight-months of brutal house-to-house combat in Mosul, Iraqi troops have captured the ruins of the 850 year-old Grand al-Nuri Mosque.
It was on this site that ISIL declared its self-styled caliphate three years ago. After retaking the mosque, an Iraqi military spokesman declared: “Their fictitious state has fallen.”
Is ISIL on the verge of defeat — in the city where its grand ambitions began? After retaking Mosul’s Grand Mosque, Iraq’s prime minister issued orders to quote: “bring the battle to its conclusion.”
CGTN’s Toby Muse was in Mosul with more on the cost to civilians—caught in the battle to crush the caliphate.
Can Iraqi forces finally beat back ISIL from the region? Tonight’s panel takes a look:
- Majeed Gly, U.N. Chief Correspondent and a Columnist for the Rudaw Media Network
- Ahmed Rushdi, a political analyst and foreign policy adviser to the Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament and the director of the House of Iraqi Expertise Foundation
- Kamran Bokhari, a senior fellow and the director of Political Affairs at the Center for Global Policy
- Mazin Al-Eshaiker, chairman of the Injah Development Center, a Baghdad-based think tank
