‘Perverse’ IS on the defensive in Mosul, US envoy says

The US-led offensive to recapture the Iraqi city of Mosul from the Islamic State group is making progress, the top American envoy to the coalition says.

IS had “returned to suicide bombing” because “this perverse caliphate is shrinking,” and it is on the defensive, Brett McGurk says at a conference in the Jordanian capital.

His remarks come as jihadist suicide assailants broke into a gas plant north of Baghdad and killed at least seven people, in an attack claimed by IS.

“We are now making progress against Daesh,” McGurk says, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

“The campaign to isolate and squeeze and constrict Daesh in Mosul has already began,” he says.

McGurk says Jordan has been contributing by conducting weekly airstrikes, publishing anti-IS propaganda and helping gather intelligence.

— Agencies