17 July 2017•Update: 18 July 2017
By Ali Cevad and Zeynep Tufekci
MOSUL, Iraq
More than 25,000 Daesh militants were killed during the Mosul liberation operations, a military commander said Sunday.
More than 450 suicide bombers were killed and 1,247 vehicles – nearly 3,000 of which were rigged with bombs -- were also destroyed, campaign commander Lieut. Gen. Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah said in a statement.
He said 130 combat drones were dropped.
Mosul was captured by Daesh that overran vast swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq in 2014.
The Iraqi army, backed by a U.S.-led air coalition, had been battling the terror group since October to dislodge it from Mosul, its last stronghold in northern Iraq.
Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi formally declared victory in Mosul on July 10.
