ISIS cowards are ‘ordered to run away and hide’ as terror chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi finally ‘admits fanatics are facing oblivion in Iraq’
Top fanatic 'releases recording telling fighters in Iraq to flee or commit suicide' as Iraqi army tightens noose around Mosul
ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has admitted his army of fanatics face oblivion in Iraq, according to reports.
Sources quoted in Iraqi media claim the terror boss released a recorded speech admitting defeat in the country, as security forces close in around the group’s last remaining territory in Mosul.
The recording – entitled “Farewell speech” – was distributed among ISIS’ preachers and clerics on Tuesday, according to .
In it, Baghdadi ordered the closure of the ISIS office responsible for regulating their fighters.
The chief fanatic told his remaining militants in Iraq to run away and hide in the mountains, al-Sumaria news reported.
He is also said to have ordered the group’s foreign fighters to either return to their home countries or blow themselves up – promising them “72 women in heaven”.
Many of ISIS’s leaders in Iraq have now fled towards the safety of the group’s territory in neighbouring Syria.
Iraqi forces have now cut the last remaining escape route from Mosul, leading those remaining in the west of the city to stage a bloody last stand, using snipers, car bombs and armed drones.
The army's 9th Armoured Division is now less than a mile from Mosul's "Syria Gate", the North-western entrance of the city, a general from the unit told reporters.
He said: "We effectively control the road, it is in our sight."
Mosul residents said they had not been able to travel on the last remaining highway out of the city since Tuesday.
The road links Mosul to Tal Afar, another ISIS stronghold 40 miles to the west, and then to the Syrian border.
Iraqi forces captured the eastern side of Mosul in January after 100 days of fighting and launched their attack on the districts that lie west of the Tigris River on February 19.
If they defeat ISIS in Mosul, the victory would see the Iraq wing of the caliphate declared by al-Baghdadi in 2014 crushed.
The US commander in Iraq has said he believes American-backed forces will recapture both Mosul and Raqqa – ISIS’s stronghold in neighbouring Syria – within the next six months.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368