24 October 2016, 13:23 GMT
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Securing the nation's borders should become a priority for the Iraqi army after the country's second-largest city of Mosul is liberated from the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh), Mowaffak Rubaie, an Iraqi lawmaker and former national security adviser, told Sputnik on Monday.
“The army's task will be to safeguard the borders, prevent terrorists from neighboring countries from entering, as well as to clear rural areas from terrorists,” he said.
Rubaie praised the US-led international coalition's airstrikes carried out to back the offensive of the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga forces in Mosul, saying the support was "very important".
24 October 2016, 11:59 GMT
The lawmaker pointed out that Daesh would not be able to claim it constitutes a "state" after Mosul, declared by terrorists a capital of the self-proclaimed caliphate, was liberated.
On October 17, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi announced the start of a military operation to retake Mosul from Daesh, a jihadist group outlawed in Russia and a number of other states.
According to local media, about 30,000 Iraqi soldiers and 4,000 Kurdish Peshmerga fighters are taking part in the operation, backed by airstrikes carried out by the US-led international coalition.
