Mosul: IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi audio orders militants to 'wreak havoc' against US-backed assault

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With Iraqi troops battling inside the Islamic State (IS) stronghold of Mosul, the militants' leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has told his followers that there could be no retreat in the "total war" against the forces arrayed against them.

Key points: IS leader releases audio for militants to up the ante against the Mosul assault

Residents report heavy rocket fire and militant presence in the street

Losing Mosul would effectively mark the defeat of Baghdadi's "caliphate" in Iraq

Expressing confidence that his IS fighters would prevail against Western "crusaders" and the Shiite-Sunni "apostates", Baghdadi called on the jihadists to "wreak havoc".

"This raging battle and total war [only increases our firm belief and our conviction] that all this is a prelude to victory," Baghdadi said in an audio recording released online by supporters on Thursday.

Iraqi regular troops and special forces, Shiite militias, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and other groups backed by US-led air strikes launched a campaign two weeks ago to retake Mosul.

Winning back the country's second biggest city would mark the defeat of the Iraq wing of a cross-border caliphate with Syria which Baghdadi declared from the pulpit of a Mosul mosque two years ago.

In his first audio message released in nearly a year, Baghdadi called on the population of Mosul and those who might consider fleeing "not to weaken", and called on the group's suicide fighters to "to wreak havoc".

Shortly after Baghdadi's speech was released, residents said heavy explosions shook eastern Mosul.

One said the militants fired dozens of rockets toward the Intisar, Quds and Samah districts where soldiers have been closing in.

"We heard the sounds of rockets firing one after the other and saw them flashing through the air," one resident said.

"The house was shaking and we were terrified, not knowing what was taking place."

Unmasked fighters take to the streets

Fighters were also on the street, unusually showing their faces, he said.

"They were saying 'We will fight till death. The caliph gave us a morale boost to fight the infidels'," he said.

Another witness from the Hadba neighbourhood of north Mosul said that IS vehicles patrolled the area and blasted out Baghdadi's speech, urging fighters to hold their positions.

Outside the city's eastern limits, hundreds of civilians streamed away from the conflict, packed into cars, pickups and trucks, waving white flags and hooting horns.

Many were from Kokjali itself, which was cleared of IS fighters by Iraq's elite Counter-Terrorism Service troops earlier this week.

Fleeing residents said there had been heavy mortar fire launched by retreating IS fighters.

By mid-morning (local time), witnesses in the Kokjali district of the city saw smoke rising from inside Mosul but there were no sounds of fighting.

Reuters

Topics: terrorism, world-politics, iraq, syrian-arab-republic