“They [the United States] say, and I regret this and reject this, that the victory is their achievement because they led this war, but really this is a victory of the Iraqi army. Yes, they supported us with their aviation, but the main praise belongs to the Iraqi soldier, the people’s militia, Iraq’s air force,” Maliki said.
The victory over ISIS in Mosul is not final with terrorists hiding in pockets and sleeper cells, Vice President of Iraq Nouri Maliki told Sputnik news.
"This victory is not final – there are still pockets where terrorists are hiding … there are sleeper cells even in Diyala,” Maliki said.
ISIS will be unable to advance or take over territories in Iraq, but its sleeper cells remain in cities including the capital city of Baghdad, Nouri Maliki said.
The long-awaited victory in Mosul ended an eight-month campaign by Iraqi Army backed by Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), commonly known in Arabic as Hashd al-Sha’abi.
The spokesman for PMF Karim al-Nouri recently also rejected claims that the US had a role in Mosul's liberation saying that, "Washington wants to have a share in the final victory announcement against ISIS and benefit from it, but I have to emphasize that this victory was won by the Iraqi people and the United States did not play any role in it".
He added that the, the US-led coalition, which has been bombing Iraq and Syria for the past couple of years, is not serious about fighting ISIS.
Maliki said that Russia preserved the entire West Asia region from being destroyed by keeping its stance toward the Syrian and the Iraqi governments.
"I have said this before and I will repeat it again – if it were not for the Russian stance, the region would be fully destroyed, its map would be new and unusual … Without Russia’s approach to the Syrian issue which differs from the one of the US, the Syrian regime would have fallen, terrorists would have intensified their actions thanks to this, the regional map would change and in the end it would lead to the fall of Baghdad,” Maliki said.
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