TEL AVIV — Islamic State members vowed to continue their worldwide crusade to impose a caliphate governed by strict Sharia law despite the terrorist group’s military losses in Mosul and expected defeat in Raqqa.

Breitbart Jerusalem obtained access to correspondence posted in a closed chat group that utilizes the encrypted Telegram messaging service. The group serves as an internal Twitter of sorts for IS jihadists and sympathizers, and has been used in the past to issue IS communications.

IS member Almoatassem Billah Almusuley wrote in the encrypted group chat, “The battle in Mosul is the second largest city battle in history. The near future will show how it turned into the largest battle in the history of Islam. We will go on, with the help of Allah. Today we are in a better situation thanks to Allah. We are in a better situation and much more united – a much stronger body than in the past.”

Almusuley added, “Claims of Shi’ites and their supporters that the battle in Mosul is over are ridiculous claims. We continue to lead heroic battles and even if we lose territory, we won’t lose our religion. We are people seeking to impose the divine sharia on earth; we are not seeking control (and) rule. That’s what we’ve learned from our sheikhs and leaders, may Allah protect them.”

IS member Abi Ayoub Alsaberi wrote, “As usual, tyrants tend to deceive their supporters with victories that have not been achieved. Yesterday they claimed that they had achieved victory. But they don’t understand that this is another imaginary victory, for the soldiers of the Caliphate are still alert and exposing their lies. The soldiers of the Caliphate bear the tidings of the destruction of the Shi’ites and the infidels of the PKK (the Kurdish Workers’ Party), and all those supported by the Americans and infidel countries. Expect more strikes. We have soldiers who will ignite the ground under your feet. These are the religious soldiers who do not fear death, but aspire to die in order to obtain martyrdom and victory with the help of Allah.”

IS member Abu Baker Alqarar wrote, “The followers of infidel religions and their friends, the Jews, the crusaders full of hate, the secularists, the communists, the atheists, the Shi’ites, those who believe in an additional god, the Muslims who’ve abandoned their faith – they must know that the Islamic State will continue to exist. It will continue to exist despite your coalition, your unity and joint action. It will continue to exist despite your armies, despite your troops, despite your numbers and despite your weapons. It will continue to exist despite your cleverness and despite your scheming. It will continue to exist despite your resentment and despite your hate.”

IS member Hamza Aldagastani wrote, “Thanks to Allah who made us soldiers of the Caliphate. We fight under the flag ‘No god but Allah’ (the flag of Islam). Russia, America and the infidel countries won’t succeed in defeating our faith and our sharia. Even if they take the land from us, they won’t succeed in tearing the faith from our hearts. We will return … to this Muslim land to impose Allah’s sharia upon it.”

Reuters reported on the latest for the battle of Mosul:

Islamic State militants attacked a village south of Mosul, killing several people including two journalists, even as they were about to lose their last redoubt in the city to an Iraqi military onslaught, security sources said on Friday.

… In Mosul, IS clung to a slowly shrinking pocket on the Tigris west bank, battling for every meter with snipers, grenades and suicide bombers, which forced Iraqi troops to fight house-to-house in densely-populated blocks.

The Iraqi military has forecast final victory this week in what used to be the de facto capital of IS’s “caliphate” in Iraq, after a grinding eight-month, U.S.-backed offensive to wrest back the city, whose pre-war population was 2 million.