Iraqi Military Leader: 'Islamic State's Defeat is Near'

08/28/2016
Baghdad, Aug 28 (Prensa Latina) Military leaders of Iraq''s Nineveh Governorate predicted today that the end of Daesh or Islamic State is near, despite the political disputes that led to the removal of the Minister of Defense, Khaled al-Obeidi.
Brigadier General Najm Al-Jabouri, from the Nineveh Operations Command, said the terrorist group now lacks its previous capabilities and conducts only suicide attacks and uses car bombs.
Engineering units are now working in dismantling booby traps and other explosives left by Daesh when they fled, said the Brigadier General, who described as 'very important' the fact that military forces took back and fully liberated Qayyarah. Meanwhile, Iraq's Minister of Defense confirmed that between Friday and today the extremists suffered more than 20 casualties in airstrikes carried out in Mosul.
At least another 10 terrorists were killed in another incident when explosives planted in a truck by Daesh exploded in a village located between the towns of Makhmur and Qayyarah.
Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi congratulated the army for the victory achieved in the strategic town of Qayyarah.
However, state television reflected the climate of uncertainty that can be felt within Al-Abadi's cabinet since Thursday, when the Parliament approved a motion to withdraw the Minister of Defense Khaled Al-Obeidi.
Al-Obeidi lost the confidence vote to the president of the chamber, the Sunni Arab Salim al-Jubouri, in a secret vote which ended with 142 votes against al-Obeidi, 102 in favor, and 18 abstentions, according to the final count of the process that seeks to impeach him for alleged corruption-related crimes.

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