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An Iraqi federal police member rests in the Old City of Mosul on July 8, 2017, as their part of the battle has been declared accomplished. (Photo by AFP)

Iraqi armed forces, backed by Popular Mobilization Units, have finally succeeded in mopping up the last remaining members of the Daesh Takfiri group in Mosul. The official announcement of the full liberation of the city has generated mixed feelings of hope and concern about the future of the Arab country. Press TV has asked Michael Springmann, an American author and former diplomat from Washington, and Richard Millet, a journalist and political commentator from London, to give their views on the significance of the liberation of Mosul.

Michael Springmann said that Iraqis need to be assured of the complete extermination of the terrorists before starting to rebuild Mosul and other parts of their country.

He said that regional and international powers are expected to withdraw their proxy forces to pave the way for the reconstruction of Iraq.

The best way to rebuild Iraq is to stop supporting [terrorist organizations], withdraw all the foreign forces from the country and provide them (Iraqis) with a Marshall plan ... to rebuild the destruction that has been caused by two American wars, the former diplomat said on Sunday night.

The United States attacked Iraq in a bid to push Iraqi forces to withdraw from Kuwait in 1990. Americans waged another war on Iraq in 2003 by occupying the country in an apparent attempt to overthrow former dictator Saddam Hussein.

Springmann recalled that there was no al-Qaeda or other extremist group in Iraq before the American invasion in 2003 and that as a result of the destabilizing US occupation, the Daesh Takfiri terrorists rose and launched their horrendous campaign of death and destruction.

The Americans and their repressive and repulsive allies in the region have been working very hard to support these various terrorist groups in order to push forward their agenda, he analyzed.

Referring to the United States role in creating and supporting terrorist organizations in the region, he argued that Washington started to support the so-called Mujahedin group in Afghanistan in 1979. There have been other fanatics such as al-Qaeda and Daesh that the Americans, the Saudis and the other folks have recruited, trained and supported for years, he added.

To sow discord among Arab and Muslim nations and to pursue their agenda in the Middle East, the Americans and the Europeans made up the religious split, he explained.

The Iraqi Sunni and Shia populations had long been living together in peace and tranquility until the Americans and their Wahhabi allies moved into Iraq and tried to split them up, Springmann said.

Meanwhile, Richard Millet expressed hope that the Iraqi people would get back to normality after the liberation of the countrys second largest city from Daesh.

He also called for handing over the Arab country to the Iraqi people, claiming that a rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran has created insecurity in Iraq and Syria.

The analyst further noted that the defeat of Daesh in Mosul does not mean the end of the terrorist group, because Daesh has become an ideology like al-Qaeda.

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'Full withdrawal of terrorists prelude to rebuilding Iraq' - Press TV

(Beirut) Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) forces have expelled at least four Yezidi families and threatened others since June 2017 because of their relatives participation in Iraqi government forces, Human Rights Watch said today. The KRGs security forces, Asayish, returned the displaced families to Sinjar, where access to basic goods and services is very limited.

The expulsion of Yezidi families from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) because a relative joined the Popular Mobilization Forces(Hashd al-Sha'abi or PMF) amounts to collective punishment in violation of international law, Human Rights Watch said.

A Yezidi fighter in Sinjar, Iraq, November 16, 2015.

Human Rights Watch spoke to three Yezidi commanders who said that Yezidi forces had been integrated into the PMF under the name Yezidi Brigades (Kata'ib Ezidkhan), with the forces holding positions in four areas of Sinjar. Sinjar is technically under Iraqi central government administrative control, but KRG security forces remain active in the area and control the main road from Sinjar to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

In late June and early July, Human Rights Watch interviewed nine displaced Yezidis originally from Kocho, Tel Kassab, and Siba Sheikh Khidr villages in Sinjar, which the PMF retook from the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) in May. All had been living in the KRI and did not want to return to their villages because of widespread destruction of property, mass graves, unexploded improvised explosive devices, and the lack of water and electricity. Their families had fled Sinjar in August 2014, after ISIS attacked the area, massacring and enslaving thousands of Yezidis. All those interviewed said that Asayish threatened them with expulsion because they had relatives who joined the Yezidi Brigades, and in four cases, they alleged that Asayish forces had forcibly expelled them to Sinjar as recently as July 5, 2017.

A Yezidi man who had been living in a camp near the town of Zakho in the KRI said that in late May, three of his sons joined the PMFs Yezidi Brigades. On June 12, an Asayish officer told him to appear at the local Asayish office the following day. He said that when he arrived, officers told him that if he did not get his sons to leave the PMF and return to the camp, he and 15 family members would need to leave the KRI by June 21 and return to Kocho.

His sons did not leave the group, and on June 29, Asayish officers at the camp ordered him and his family to leave immediately. He asked for a 24-hour extension to get his family ready, but the officers refused. An officer drove him and his family to Sinjar. I dont know what to do next, he said. My village was completely destroyed, and there is no water or electricity in the area.

Another Yezidi man who had been living in a camp near the city of Dohuk said that his father had joined the Yezidi Brigades in late May. On June 21, Asayish officers at the camp told him his family of 10 had one week to convince his father to come home or they would be expelled from the KRI. On June 30, the officers told him that because his father had not returned, the family would need to leave that same day, he said.

He said his uncle has close ties with the KRG, and so officers said they would spare the family the shame of picking them up at their tent, and would instead allow a relative to drive them to Sinjar. We are now living with a relative in Khanasoor [in Sinjar], because our village is still littered in landmines, he said. We dont know what we will do.

A Yezidi man living in a camp near Zakho said that on June 17, two Asayish officers from the camp management office told him that they knew his brother had joined the Yezidi Brigades, and that if his brother did not leave the group within four days, his family of 10 would be returned to Kocho, in Sinjar. The man said that he had two brothers who had joined the Yezidi Brigades and that they would not be willing to leave the armed group. At least 10 other families at the camp told him that Asayish had made the same demand of them. He said he and the other families expected to be expelled any day.

One Yezidi Brigades commander said that on June 24, Asayish officers called his family, who live in a village near Dohuk, into the citys Asayish office. An officer made his wife sign a pledge that she and her two daughters would leave the KRI within seven days because of her husbands role within the PMF, he said. I dont know where I should move my family, he said. I cant bring them here to Sinjar. My older daughter is an engineering student at the American University of Dohuk and we cannot interrupt her studies.

A Yezidi woman who had been held captive by ISIS for a year and a half, now living with two relatives in a town near Dohuk, said that her brother joined the Yezidi Brigades in mid-May. On June 14, an Asayish officer came to her home and told her to come to the local Asayish office the following morning. When she arrived, an officer there told her that if her brother did not leave the PMF, she and her two relatives would need to return to Kocho. She said she had persuaded her brother to leave the Yezidi Brigades and he informed Asayish that he had.

Human Rights Watch received reports from a Yezidi rights activist of another 15 Yezidi families who were expelled and returned to Sinjar by Asayish forces, but could not confirm the report.

On June 23, Human Rights Watch sent a set of questions regarding these allegations to Dr. Dindar Zebari, chairperson of the KRGs High Committee to Evaluate and Respond to International Reports. Human Rights Watch has not received a response.

In 2016, Human Rights Watch documented severe restrictions on moving goods in and out of Sinjar that interfered with residents livelihoods and their ability to get food, water, and medical care. Three aid workers told Human Rights Watch that the situation had improved dramatically since May. However, while more goods are moving into Sinjar as more families have returned in 2017, many items have been heavily taxed, making them beyond the reach of many families.

In 2016, Human Rights Watch had also documented cases in which Asayish forces ordered families to leave the same camps and areas in and around Dohuk and threatened to expel others from the KRI after learning that their children had joined forces affiliated with the armed wing of the Kurdistan Workers Party (Partiya Karkern Kurdistan or PKK) in Sinjar.

International humanitarian law prohibits collective punishment, which includes any form of punitive sanction or harassment by authorities on targeted groups of people for actions that they did not personally commit.

The United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement provide that all internally displaced persons have the right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose their residence (principle 14). They also have the right to seek safety in another part of the country and to be protected against forcible return to any place where their life, safety, liberty and/or health would be at risk (principle 15).

While the Kurdistan Regional Government may not like the Popular Mobilization Forces, punishing family members of PMF fighters is the wrong and unlawful way to address the issue, Fakih said.

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Kurdistan Region of Iraq: Yezidi Fighters' Families Expelled - Human Rights Watch

Supporters of the Iraqi national team wave their national flag during the international friendly soccer game between Iraq and Jordan at Basra International Stadium in Basra, Iraq, June 1, 2017.(photo byHAIDAR MOHAMMED ALI/AFP/Getty Images)

Author:Mustafa Saadoun Posted July 9, 2017

BAGHDAD Iraq has been workingto get theFIFA banon its soccer stadiums lifted by hosting showcase gamesand wooing international soccer stars to tour the country's facilities.

The latest gameswere held June 26 and June 29 in Karbala between the Iraqi Olympic team and its Syrian counterpart. Iraq wonthe first game 2-0and the second game ended in a 1-1 tie.

The gamescome as Iraq is trying to getthe international governing body for soccer toliftits ban, which hasbeen in place since 2013. In May, FIFA agreed to let Iraq host unofficial games, or "friendlies," during a three-monthtrial period.Before its gamewith the Syrian Olympic team, the Iraqi national team playedJune 1 against the Jordanian team at Basra International Stadium in southern Iraq. About 65,000 spectatorsturned out to seeIraq win 1-0.

In addition to hostingunofficial games, Iraq is tryingto attractinternational soccer stars to visit its sports facilities.Iraq is preparing to receive a group of international soccer stars to participate in a friendly gamewith Iraq's standout players. On June 18, former Dutch midfielderEdgar Davids arrived in Iraq to explore Basra International Stadium, where the gamewill be played Aug. 1.

The Iraqi people have a passion for [soccer]and the promotional gameswill contribute to lifting the ban imposed on Iraqi soccer, Davids said during his visit.Ahmed Musawi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Youth and Sports, greeted Davids.

Musawi told Al-Monitor, There are signs that the ban could be lifted, especially amid the games that Iraq played against Jordan and Syria. We have sensed a great [will] on the part of the Arab and international federations to lift the ban on Iraqi stadiums.

He added, There are international companiesready to cooperate with Iraq in organizing international games. Also, the most prominent gamebetween international and Iraqi soccer stars will take place in August.

Ronaldinho and Rivaldo, former Brazilian soccer stars,former Dutch soccer starClarence Seedorf and Davidsare among the sports celebrities who will be coming toBasra.

A source in the Ministry of Youth and Sports told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, Once the friendly games to be held in Iraqi stadiums are over, Iraq will submit a special dossier about those games and the related organizational measures to the International Federation of Football [FIFA], along with videos showing the spectators.

Iraq has seen its share of bans on hosting games. The ban imposed since 2013 came after a coach was killed by security forces and the country wasexperiencingfrequent jihadiattacks. Other safety-related bans were imposed in 1985 during the Iran-Iraq War, in 1990 with the invasion of Kuwait and in 2003 during the US war on Iraq.In 2009, the Iraqi National Olympic Committee disbandedthe Iraq Football Association(IFA) andIraqi security forces took over the IFA's offices. TheFIFA Emergency Committee then suspended the IFA. The Iraqi Olympic Committee and the IFA hada long-running dispute over who was in charge of the country's soccer program.

In a promising sign,the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)allowed Iraq to host a conference game in May between two Iraqi teams:Air Forceand Al-Zawraa.

Though Iraq has had to play all of its official FIFA games outside its own stadiums in recent years, it has managed a number of achievements. It ranked No. 4at the 2004 Athens Olympics,took first place in the West Asian Games in 2005,won the AFC Asian Cup in 2007 and the Arab Cup for Juniors for the first time in 2014.

Thenational team also won the AFC Asian U-22 cup for Olympic teams in 2014, the AFC Asian U-16 cup in 2016 and the AFC Asian U-14 cup in 2014. Also, Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya Iraqi soccer clubwon the AFC Cup in 2016. In 2013, Iraq won the World Military Championship for the fourth time.

During a June 1 meeting with theJordanian Football Association president in Baghdad, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said, SportsuniteIraqisand lifting the embargo will be a good omen and a security message for a new stage.

Minister of Youth and Sports Abdul-Hussein Abtan also extended an invitationlast month to the US national soccer team to come to Iraq and play a friendly gamewith the Iraqi national team. US Embassy Charge d'Affaires Stephanie Williams said at the time that Iraq had earned a lifting of the ban in part because of thestate of its sports stadiums.

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Iraq hopes to bring FIFA soccer back to its stadiums - Al-Monitor

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 9, 2017 U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 25 strikes consisting of 75 engagements, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 18 strikes consisting of 26 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Abu Kamal, two strikes destroyed two ISIS oil separator tanks, two oil tankers and a wellhead.

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, four strikes destroyed 11 ISIS oil stills, three oil-still tanks, three oil tankers, an oil separator tank, a wellhead, and a pump jack.

-- Near Raqqa, 12 strikes engaged 10 ISIS tactical units and destroyed seven fighting positions, two vehicles, a front-end loader, an ISIS communications tower and communications equipment.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted seven strikes consisting of 49 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Huwayjah, one strike destroyed an ISIS fuel point.

-- Near Beiji, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units and destroyed a tactical vehicle and a bunker.

-- Near Kisik, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit.

-- Near Mosul, two strikes engaged two ISIS tactical units; destroyed 21 fighting positions, six improvised bombs, four medium machine guns, three staging areas, two rocket-propelled grenade systems and a vehicle-borne-bomb facility; and damaged six fighting positions.

-- Near Rawah, a strike destroyed a vehicle-borne bomb.

Additional July 7 Strikes

Officials today also announced results of nine July 7 strikes for which details were unavailable at the time of yesterday's update:

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, Syria, a strike destroyed an ISIS media facility.

-- Near Raqqa, Syria, six strikes engaged four ISIS tactical units; destroyed five fighting positions, an improvised-bomb factory and a vehicle-borne bomb; and damaged 15 fighting positions.

-- Near Mosul, Iraq, two strikes engaged an ISIS tactical unit; destroyed four medium machine guns, four fighting positions, four garages, three ISIS-held buildings, two vehicles and a weapons cache and damaged four fighting positions and two garages.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.

For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

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Strikes Continue in Effort to Defeat ISIS in Syria, Iraq > U.S. ... - Department of Defense

A woman holds an injured girl as Iraqi forces continue their advance against ISIS in Mosul. Felipe Dana / AP

The U.S. military said its priority was to stop people suffering by defeating ISIS as quickly as possible.

"The longer this takes, the more the people will suffer under ISIS," it said.

However, humanitarian workers in Mosul said this sense of urgency trumped their efforts to make coalition forces more mindful of the civilian population packed into a city that had some 1.5 million residents before the conflict started.

Belkis Wille, senior Iraq researcher for Human Rights Watch, told NBC News that in the final push to take Mosul there was a "massive uptick in ground fire" and the use of large 500-1,000-pound crater bombs that cause huge destruction and many deaths.

Human Rights Watch made recommendations to the warring parties to take some of those powerful weapons off the table, Wille said.

But there was a "general feeling among the military forces, 'We need to keep the momentum up. Its better for the civilians of Mosul if we can get ISIS out,'" she said.

For the Iraqi military, ISIS' use of civilians as human shields made some casualties inevitable.

"It is a battle inside towns and cities, so there must be some casualties among civilians when you target ISIS terrorists who are hiding among civilians," Brig. Yahya Rasool, the spokesman of the Iraqi Joint Operation Command, told NBC News in a phone interview.

Rasool said the Iraqi forces' "main concern is to prevent civilian deaths." He defended the U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, saying they were "very precise" and rely on "precise intelligence information."

For the people caught in the crossfire in Mosul over the last few months, it's been a living hell.

"That place, it was absolute death," a man fleeing Mosul's Old City told the AP on Wednesday. "We will never be the same. Once the fear has been planted in your heart, you can't get rid of it."

Meantime, coalition forces have also been closing in on

The city of approximately 220,000 is considerably smaller than Mosul, but it is of immense strategic importance to ISIS militants because they have used it as a base to launch attacks on the West.

In June, the U.N. Human Rights Council denounced the

"Violence continues to be directed against civilians, with complete disrespect for civilian protection," Paulo Srgio Pinheiro, the head of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said in a statement.

The fighting has involved the "unrestrained use of airstrikes against residential neighborhoods, attacks against doctors and hospitals, [and] the use of suicide bombers that deliberately target civilians," he added. "Fighting remains brutal in purpose and reprehensible in method."

He also warned against tactics that involved civilian deaths as collateral damage.

"The imperative to fight terrorism must not, however, be undertaken at the expense of civilians who unwillingly find themselves living in areas where ISIL is present," Pinheiro said.

Kinda Haddad, the head of Syria research at Airwars, has been monitoring U.S.-led coalition air strikes, as well as Russian and Assad regime-led strikes, for the last two and half years. She said she used to see an average of three to ten alleged coalition airstrikes per week but now she regularly sees about 50 per week.

A graph from Airwars tracking the number of U.S. and allied airstrikes on Syria from December 2014-June 2017.

"Earlier the [local] monitors said they knew when the airstrikes were coalition strikes because they were so precise," said Haddad. "But that has changed."

"The trend is telling us something," said Hadid. "The fighting is too intense. Choices can still be made. The preservation of human life should be at the forefront, not an afterthought."

For the aid organizations trying to help civilians fleeing the violence, it has been an extremely challenging experience to say the least.

"This is a very sophisticated conflict," Jonathan Henry, of Doctors Without Borders, told NBC News by phone from Iraq last week. "It is an urban conflict akin to World War II. It is very challenging to work in."

Henry is the outgoing emergency coordinator for the organization, which is also known as Mdecins Sans Frontires, in West Mosul. He said that even for MSF, which specializes in sending medical teams to conflict zones, trying to provide medical care to civilians when doctors are in range of artillery and sniper fire has not been easy.

"The horrific theme of the conflict, where women and children are among the victims, is extremely traumatic," said Henry, who has worked for MSF for the past 12 years in places like Darfur, Ethiopia and Syria.

On one positive note, he said that within days of opening their most recent medical treatment center close to the front line in West Mosul, they had their first baby delivery.

"So life goes on, even in a war zone," he said.

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In Battle Against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, Civilians Suffer Most - NBCNews.com