Women Suicide Bombers Strike Iraqi Soldiers in Mosul Following ‘Victory’ Declaration

Iraqi officials confirmed an attack by female suicide bombers in Mosul, Iraq, on Monday, days after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory in the last major Islamic State stronghold in the country.

The women reportedly hid among fleeing civilians and killed themselves and a soldier. Several others were wounded, the Associated Press is reporting.

“It was the latest counter-attack by the Islamic State group as Iraqi forces close in on the last pocket of militant-held territory in the Old City neighborhood — the scene of the last stand by IS militants,” AP reported. “After days of fierce battles, the territory held by the militants in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, is rapidly shrinking, with IS now controlling just over 1 square kilometer in all, or about 0.40 square miles.”

This assessment comes on the heels of an announcement that the Islamic State had been defeated in the city just days ago. Iraqi’s state television network, al-Iraqiyah, had “announced the end” of ISIS in the city. Abadi, meanwhile, tweeted that the “end of the fake Daesh” state had arrived with the “liberation of Mosul.” (Daesh is an Arabic acronym for ISIS).

Sgt. Ali Abdullah Hussein told the AP that sending women out as suicide bombers has become an increasingly common tactic among Islamic State terrorists.

“[The women] appeared from the basement (of a building) and they blew themselves up,” said Hussein, who had left the scene of the attack with the body of his dead comrade.

“The attack happened in the area of the destroyed al-Nuri Mosque, which was the focus of the Iraqi forces’ push last week,” AP reported. “Over the past three days, Hussein said at least four such attacks have targeted Iraqi forces as hundreds of Mosul’s civilians are fleeing the battles in the Old City’s congested streets.”

The operation to retake Mosul, supported by the U.S. military, has been under way for about nine months.

AP also reports that the pushback against the radical Islamic terrorists includes taking back the area around the 12th-century al-Nuri mosque, where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the IS caliphate in July 2014.

“After the Iraqi forces retook the landmark, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared an end to IS’ so-called caliphate and pledged victory was ‘near,’” according to the AP.

Hussein said in a separate AP report that suicide bombers in Mosul are now women with seven blowing themselves up on Monday alone.

“Seven women faced our units but thank God our units stopped these women suicide bombers,” Hussein said. “Some women exploded themselves on fleeing families.

“This is an evil and cowardly attempt by terrorists to inflict the greatest losses on civilians and security forces,” Hussein said.

NBC News reported on Monday that extremists are still living among civilians in parts of the city.

“There are at least 30 ISIS terrorists in my neighborhood,” said Mohammed Sinan, an unemployed businessman who lives in the Al-Andulus area in eastern Mosul that was recaptured in January. “We know them very well,”

Zuher Al-Juburi, a government-appointed city councilor in Mosul, told NBC News hundreds of ISIS terrorists are living throughout the city, but NBC News could not verify his account.