Mosul

(AFP) – French president Emmanuel Macron was to pay a visit Sunday to the Islamic State group’s former Iraqi stronghold Mosul, a day after vowing to keep troops in the country.

ROME — Pope Francis visited the war-torn city of Mosul on Sunday, warning the devastation of the Christian community is an incalculable loss for the country and the region.

Members of Iraq’s persecuted Christian community attempting to return home over three years after the Islamic State’s “caliphate” fell are struggling to resettle, multiple reports highlighted Sunday, as Muslim militias and fraudsters have stolen many of their homes, while others lie in ruin.

Pope Francis’ plans to travel to Iraq on March 5 are “unaffected” by recent violence in Baghdad and Erbil, the Vatican and Iraq’s Foreign Ministry concur.

Kurdish news service Rudaw reported Tuesday that residents of Mosul are still waiting for the corpses of the Islamic State’s victims to be cleared from the streets. The city was liberated from ISIS control four years ago.

The archbishop of Mosul, Iraq, has expressed his people’s joy over the announcement of a March visit by Pope Francis, the first of its kind by any pontiff.

The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis will make a three-day visit to Iraq in March as a show of support for the nation’s beleaguered Christian community.

The archbishop of Mosul, Iraq, said Wednesday that he fears more for Europe than for his native Iraq because Europe is naïve about the dangers of radical Islam.

The archbishop of Mosul, Iraq, said Wednesday that while many Europeans have come to the aid of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, the European Union itself has been slow to mobilize.

Christian persecution in Iraq and Syria has decreased dramatically in the aftermath of the fall of the Islamic State, a report published Wednesday revealed, in large part because the affected areas have been almost completely stripped of their Christian populations.

President Trump on Wednesday congratulated Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher and his family on Tuesday’s military court ruling he is not guilty of murdering a wounded Islamic State fighter.

Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher was released from pre-trial confinement late Thursday after a contentious pre-trial hearing in which Navy prosecutors’ alleged misconduct came under serious scrutiny.

Iraqi media reported on Sunday the capture of a veteran Islamic State commander known as the “Prince of Battles” due to the many engagements he fought against Iraqi forces.

The court-martial of Special Warfare Operator Chief Edward Gallagher began on Friday at Naval Base San Diego. According to numerous media reports and word from his family, Gallagher will plead not guilty to numerous war crimes charges, including indiscriminate fire into civilian crowds and using a knife to kill a captured teenage Islamic State fighter.

BAGHDAD – More than 200 mass graves containing up to 12,000 victims have been found so far in Iraq that could hold vital evidence of war crimes by the Islamic State group, the UN said Tuesday.

The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is helping the Islamic State (ISIS) rebuild a clandestine terror network inside Iraq that poses an ongoing security threat, according to Iraqi National Police Brigadier General Aref al-Zebari.

Iraq needs up to $100 billion to rebuild the city of Mosul alone following the devastation at the hands of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against the jihadi group told reporters on Tuesday.

BEIRUT — The Islamic State group has released a new militant audio recording, purportedly of its shadowy leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, his first in almost a year.

A court in Baghdad, Iraq sentenced dozens of women married to or widowed by members of the Islamic State to death or life in prison in a mass trial this week.

Pope Francis announced Sunday that he will name 14 new cardinals on June 29, including the redoubtable head of the Chaldean Catholic Church, Iraqi Patriarch Louis Raphaël I Sako.

New Year’s Eve was met with celebrations in the streets of Mosul and a fireworks display, the first such revelry since the Islamic State captured the city four years ago.

The damage inflicted on Iraq by the rise and fall of the Islamic State (ISIS) is horrendous, with cities like the former ISIS stronghold of Mosul virtually leveled. Baghdad puts the damage at roughly $100 billion, which is an impressive level of vandalism from a group President Barack Obama famously dismissed as the “junior varsity team” of terrorism. Unfortunately for Iraq, donor nations are not lining up to finance the reconstruction.

Mass was held at Saint Paul’s church in Mosul three years after the Islamic State took control of the city. Video of the Mass was posted online.

Hymns filled a church in Iraq’s second city Mosul on Sunday as worshippers celebrated Christmas for the first time in four years after the end of jihadist rule.

The price Mosul’s residents paid in blood to see their city freed was between 9,000 and 11,000 dead, a civilian casualty rate nearly 10 times higher than what has been previously reported.

MOSUL, Iraq (AP) — The price Mosul’s residents paid in blood to see their city freed was between 9,000 and 11,000 dead, a civilian casualty rate nearly 10 times higher than what has been previously reported. The number killed in the 9-month battle to liberate the city from the Islamic State marauders has not been acknowledged by the U.S.-led coalition, the Iraqi government or the self-styled caliphate.

Contents: Thousands of Kurds in violent protests against Kurdistan government in northern Iraq; Iraq’s Baghdad government splits over role of Iran-backed Shia militias

The U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State on Sunday congratulated the Government of Iraq on its announcement of the liberation of Iraq from ISIS.

“Mosul Eye,” a self-described historian who covertly recorded Islamic State (ISIS) crimes and helped get the information out into the world, has revealed his real identity.

Contents: Mattis and Tillerson work to prevent Iraq vs Kurd military confrontation in Kirkuk; ISIS fighters permitted to leave Raqqa, Syria, with human shields; Syria demands ‘immediately’ pullout of Turkey’s forces from Idlib province

HAWIJA, Iraq — Iraqi forces retook one of the Islamic State terror group’s last two enclaves in the country on Thursday, overrunning the longtime insurgent bastion of Hawija after a two-week offensive.

The Islamic State (ISIS) released a previously unheard audio recording Thursday of its “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who has been missing for the better part of a year as ISIS loses territory in Iraq and Syria, fueling speculation that he had been killed.

TEL AVIV — The leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah released a statement Wednesday explaining the ceasefire agreement between his organization and the Islamic State, which gave hundreds of IS fighters safe passage to the region of al-Bukamal on the border of Syrian and Iraq with support from the Syrian regime.

Contents: Done with Mosul, Iraqi forces begin operation to eject ISIS from Tal Afar; Turkey warns of sectarian war following battle of Tal Afar; President Trump to announce US strategy in Afghanistan

Contents: Barcelona attackers apparently had multiple coordinated attacks planned; ISIS takes credit for the Barcelona attack; White House officials appear to differ on North Korea military option

TEL AVIV — Amid an intense battle for control of Raqqa, the Islamic State’s so-called Syrian capital, IS has released propaganda photos purporting to show life as normal.

Syrian government troops advanced overnight against the Islamic State group in the country’s north and center, drawing closer to the key battleground of Deir Ezzor, a monitor said.

President Trump has placed a high priority on rebuilding the U.S. military and allowing his commanders to make more calls. So far, in the administration’s first six months, successes have been piling up.

A 16-year-old German girl who ran away from home to join the Islamic State (ISIS) has been captured in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq.

Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is currently alive in Syria, a top Kurdish counterterrorism official recently told Reuters, denying reports from Russia and a Syrian war monitor group claiming otherwise.