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The final push: Retaking Mosul from ISIL

Iraq’s PM declares an end of the ‘caliphate’, as Iraqi forces battle to retake the city’s ISIL-held area.

Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
A man who managed to escape from his house in an ISIL-controlled area of the city takes off his t-shirt to prove to Iraqi forces that he is not carrying an explosive. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]

By Emanuele Satolli

Published On 5 Jul 2017

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Mosul, Iraq – After eight months of a US-backed offensive to retake the city of Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS), Iraqi troops have finally captured the ruined Grand al-Nuri mosque and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has declared the group’s caliphate at an end.

But Iraqi forces do not yet have full control of the city. ISIL fighters are surrounded in a 300-by-500 metre section of the Old City beside the Tigris river.

Civilians fleeing Iraqi advances are increasingly desperate. The elderly and weak are carried across mounds of rubble in blankets. Soldiers, increasingly fearful of the Old City’s inhabitants after a string of suicide bombings, hurry the groups along.

Largely cut off from food and water for months, humanitarian groups are reporting a spike in the number of displaced people suffering from malnutrition and dehydration.

Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
Members of the Iraqi army evacuate people who managed to escape from their homes in ISIL-controlled areas of the Zanjili district in west Mosul. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
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Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
Members of the Iraqi army evacuate an elderly woman in western Mosul. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
A woman in the Zanjili district flees with her son amid the rubble to a safer area. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
People flee the Zanjili district as Iraqi forces press further into the area in west Mosul. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
Members of the Iraqi army run away from the frontline in the Zanjili district during an alleged chlorine chemical attack by ISIL. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
Members of the Iraqi army help a fellow soldier affected with breathing difficulties after an alleged chlorine chemical attack in the Zanjili district. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
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Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
A member of the Iraqi army hit by an ISIL sniper during an attempt to retake Al-Shifa Hospital is carried away from the front line. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
A member of the Iraqi army sits inside a building at the Zanjili front line moments after one of his comrades was killed. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
A man who escaped from al-Zinjili district is helped by members of the Iraqi army, in west Mosul. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
Ead, 13, who was injured by an explosion while fleeing with his family from his house still under ISIL control in al-Zanjili district, is transferred with his father and another injured woman,inside a military vehicle, to a safe place in west Mosul. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
A family stuck inside a house in the al-Zanjili district where the Iraqi army is advancing to cleanse the area of ISIL presence. The family could not flee with the others. The woman, Ahlam Jasem, 45, lost one leg during a mortar attack and her husband is too old to carry her. Five members of the family - two daughters, two sons and a daughter-in-law have died since the beginning of the operation. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
Members of the Iraqi Special Forces, commonly known as the Golden Division, take an injured comrade to a field hospital. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
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The ruins of the Mosul Hotel in west Mosul. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]
Mosul, the long final push/Please Do Not Use
Members of the Iraqi Army pose inside the ruins of the Mosul Hotel before an attempt to retake Al-Shifa Hospital in west Mosul. [Emanuele Satolli/Al Jazeera]