Mosul

About 2,000 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants are estimated to remain in the Syrian city of Raqqa, fighting for their survival in the face of an offensive by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, a senior U.S. official said on Aug. 4.

Referring to an anticipated visit by a Turkish delegation to Iraq, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Wednesday that the “imminent” withdrawal of Turkish troops stationed in Iraq.

“A Turkish delegation will soon visit Iraq to discuss arrangements for the removal of Turkish forces in Iraq,” Abadi said.

Turkey’s scapegoating of US special envoy Brett McGurk over the military partnership between the United States and the Syrian Kurds grew crazier today, with one pro-government newspaper labeling him a murderer.

Militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for an attack on the Iraqi embassy in Kabul on Monday that began with a suicide bomber blowing himself up at the main gate, allowing gunmen to enter the building and battle security forces, Reuters reports.

Afghan security forces battled gunmen following a suicide attack outside the Iraqi embassy in the capital, Kabul, BBC reports.
A bomber blew himself up at the gate of the embassy in the central Shar-e-Naw neighbourhood, then three other attackers entered the compound, the Afghan interior ministry said.

Although the ministry said the siege had ended, reports of gunfire continued.

A drone carrying just a single grenade infiltrated an ammunition dump in Ukraine, setting off an explosion that caused an astounding billion dollars worth of damage! The incident points to the growing use of drones in wartime, particularly off the shelf civilian products harnessed to conduct sabotage and other attacks.

Abdelhamid Abaaoud - Photo: Twitter / @sudouest

The recapture of Mosul is an achievement of the Iraqi people while the US is trying to highjack it and claims it was them who "led that war," Iraq's Vice President Nouri al-Maliki has told the RIA Novosti news agency.

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım congratulated his Iraqi counterpart, Haider al-Abadi, on Iraq's declared victory against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in a phone call on July 19 and offered Turkey's help to rebuild the devastated city, Iraqi Ambassador to Ankara Hisham al-Alawi has said. 

Mosul, the second largest Iraqi city, has recently been liberated from the Islamic State (IS) control. When the terror outfit captured the city three years ago, top IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said: "Come to me, I will give you a new Caliphate." Although Russia announced in June that al-Baghdadi was killed in an air-strike, a Kurd leader recently claimed that he is still alive.

A 16-year-old German Islamic State bride, who reportedly joined the jihadist group after being radicalised online, has been captured by Iraqi forces in the ruins of Mosul.

Linda Wenzel, from the small town of Pulsnitz, near Dresden, was discovered by troops with a group of 20 other suspected foreign female Isil members in a tunnel under the Old City on Thursday.