Iraqi envoy says Pakistan helped Iraq in fighting IS militants

ISLAMABAD: As the Iraqi government has announced to have liberated Mosul from the militant Islamic State (IS) group three years after they swept into the city, Ambassador in Islamabad Yasin Muhammad Karim said that Pakistan helped Iraq to fight the militants in the city.

A few hundred Islamic State insurgents took control of Mosul, the third largest city of Iraq, three years ago imposing a reign of terror and declaring a caliphate in the territory it had seized spanning large swathes of Iraq and Syria.

While addressing a press conference at the embassy on Friday, Ambassador Karim said Pakistan was among the countries which helped Iraq in driving the militants out of the city. “Apart from intelligence on the outfit, Pakistan provided arms and ammunition and military medical assistance,” he added.

He recounted that Pakistan had also trained some of the Iraqi pilots who took part in operations against the terrorists.

The ambassador said Iraq is about to declare a final victory against the IS and added that the victory had come at a huge cost. He called for support for reconstruction and restoration of services in the city devastated by war.

“We need help for rebuilding infrastructure, which is the next important task.”

He stressed the need for continuing the cooperation between the two nations,which he said could help the latter to tackle increasing footprints of the IS terrorists in the region.

“The people of Pakistan were generally very supportive of Iraq in its war against the IS,” he remarked.

He said that, after liberation of Mosul which has come at a huge cost, Iraq was about to make a final push against the IS from its territory.

When asked about Pakistanis’ involved in the IS activities in Iraq, he said the ‘bad guys’, part of the outfit, were from over 100 nationalities.