The fleeing bastards...
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Irbil, Iraq (CNN)The commander of Iraq's federal police has said ISIS militants in western Mosul are looking to cut and run from their defense of the group's last remaining stronghold in the country.
Cmdr. Ra'ed Shaker Jawdat said ISIS militants were increasingly cut off from each other, and that its leaders were fleeing the remaining pockets of militant control.
"The terrorist organization Da'esh are living in a state of shock (and) confusion and defeat and its fighters are fighting in isolated groups," Jawdat said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
"Our field intelligence units indicate that the terrorist organization is falling apart and its leadership are running away from Mosul."
He added that his forces were combing the al-Ghazalani, al-Jawasq, and al-Tayaran neighborhoods in search of fighters, IEDs and booby traps, and that government artillery was targeting remaining "terrorist dens" in the western half of the city.
Militant meeting bombarded
Earlier, Iraqi militants and government troops had targeted an ISIS meeting in a town outside Mosul, killing and injuring dozens, according to the Popular Mobilization Unit's (PMU) media unit.
PMU artillery targeted the meeting, which was being held near a police station in Tal Afar, a largely Turkmen town around 70 km (43 miles) west of Mosul, the northern Iraqi town which has been the focus of a huge Iraqi military operation in recent weeks and months.