MOSUL, Iraq — Iraq's Prime Minister declared an end to the Islamic State caliphate Thursday after Iraqi forces captured the compound of a landmark mosque in Mosul that was blown up last week by the group.
"We are seeing the end of the fake Daesh state. The liberation of Mosul proves that," Haider al-Abadi said using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State in a statement posted to Twitter. "We will not relent, our brave forces will bring victory," he added.
But even as the Iraqi leader issued his statement, heavy clashes continued to unfold in Mosul — filling field hospitals and forcing hundreds to flee.
The destroyed al-Nuri mosque was retaken by Iraqi special forces Thursday after a dawn push. The site is where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi made his only public appearance in July 2014, declaring a self-styled Islamic "caliphate," encompassing territories then-held by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.
Iraqi and coalition officials said the Islamic State blew up the mosque complex last week. The group has blamed a U.S. airstrike for the destruction, a claim rejected by a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition, who said coalition planes "did not conduct strikes in that area at that time."
The advances Thursday come as Iraqi troops are pushing deeper into the Old City, a densely populated neighborhood west of the Tigris River where Islamic State fighters are making their last stand in Iraq's second-largest city. Clashes were ongoing into the evening Thursday, according to Associated Press reporters on the scene.
Last week, Iraqi forces launched the operation to retake the Old City's narrow alleyways and dense clusters of homes, embarking on some of the most difficult urban combat in the Islamic State fight to date. The Islamic State now holds less than 0.8 square miles of territory inside Mosul, but the advances have come at considerable cost.
Damaged and destroyed houses dot the route Iraqi forces have carved into the congested district and the stench of rotting bodies rises from beneath mounds of rubble.
"There are hundreds of bodies under the rubble," said special forces Maj. Dhia Thamir, deployed inside the Old City. He added that all the dead bodies along the special forces' route were of Islamic State fighters.
Special forces Maj. Gen. Sami al-Aridi acknowledged that some civilians have been killed by airstrikes and artillery in the fight for the Old City. "Of course there is collateral damage, it is always this way in war," he said.
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