PM ABADI: IRAQ REFUSED TO ALLOW ISIS FIGHTERS TO WITHDRAW FROM MOSUL

Haider Al Abadi, Iraq’s prime minister, attends an event to announce victory over ISIL in Mosul. Reuters

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said that he had rejected agreements suggested by some parties that could allow ISIS fighters to withdraw from Mosul before its liberation.

Al-Abadi didn’t reveal the sides that asked him to approve ISIS’s withdrawal but stressed that he rejected all pressures from all sides during the Mosul battle.

“The advocates of sedition revealed their intentions,” Al-Abadi said in a speech during his visit to the Martyrs Foundation. “We liberated Mosul and defeated ISIS and refused to barter as some called.”

“We were able to liberate Mosul from ISIS terrorist organization despite the opposition of some and the suspicion of others,” Al-Abadi added.

The prime minister stressed that the number of casualties during the Mosul battle is exaggerated.

“Figures on Iraqi casualties are false and some try to exaggerate them,” he said.

Last Tuesday, Al-Abadi said during a press conference that the Iraqi government is committed to the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) despite the recent decision to reduce the salaries of its fighters.

“Our support for the PMU continues and we increased its budget … I was surprised by the reduce of the PMU fighters’ salaries after the increase in allocations and I ordered an investigation of the subject, but some rejected it,” Al-Abadi stressed. “The PMU will remain for years, despite attempts by some to steal its efforts.”

Iraq is currently working to rearrange its internal and external relations after the liberation of Mosul, in order to avoid a return to the political and social problems that led to the upraising of ISIS in 2014.

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