(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday it was the duty of the U.S.-led coalition to prevent ISIS militants from escaping into nearby Syria from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
The coalition is providing air and ground support to Iraqi government and Kurdish forces that launched an offensive on Monday to retake Mosul, ISIS last major urban stronghold in Iraq which it captured in 2014.
"It is the responsibility of the coalition to cut the road to Syria for ISIS," Iraqi state television quoted Abadi as saying. Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad accused the coalition earlier on Tuesday of planning to allow safe passage into Syria for ISIS militants fleeing the battle for Mosul.
In a Tuesday statement, the Syrian army warned of a “malicious scheme” by the US and Saudi Arabia to provide safe routes for the groupings of Takfiri terrorists, who are fleeing the offensive against the city.
It warned that Damascus regards any attempt at crossing into its borders as “an attack on the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic,” stressing that those who attempt to do so would be regarded as terrorists and would be dealt with accordingly.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned that Moscow may take "political and military" decisions if the ISIS terrorists were redeployed to eastern Syria.
/257
19 October 2016 - 13:18
News ID: 786509
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday it was the duty of the U.S.-led coalition to prevent ISIS militants from escaping into nearby Syria from the northern Iraqi city of Mosul.
