The Iraqi Army on Friday managed to capture the tactically important target of Mosul University in what was once a stronghold of the Islamic State group — also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) — and has now managed to discover chemical weapons there.
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While it's highly likely that ISIS will cease to be the terrorist outfit it was in 2016, chances of the group splintering into smaller units increases with every defeat it suffers. And this newest tactical capture should help weaken it further, to a point where it is rendered almost harmless.
"There are still clashes. We entered the university and cleared the technical institute, dentistry and antiquities departments. In the coming hours it will be liberated completely," Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) was quoted as saying by agencies. Their task, however, has been made tough by ISIS using drones to track their movements.
"The recapture of Mosul University complex is a significant step, as the complex included important headquarters of the extremist group, the officer said, adding that the next significant target will be the former presidential palaces in eastern the city," according to an IANS report.
The agencies also said that the CTS had found "chemicals" that ISIS used "to try to make weapons." The university was captured by ISIS in 2014, and it is believed that the chemicals already present at the university were taken up by ISIS, which attempted to make chemical weapons out of them.
It may have even succeeded in its efforts: There were reports from Syria that the terrorist group had used mustard gas on the civilian population as well as the Syrian rebels. Eight people — including three civilians — had been injured in that attack.
