The Islamic State is almost finished and its stronghold of Mosul in Iraq will be liberated by the end of the year, an Iraqi ambassador to Spain said.
"The Islamic State is on the verge of extinction and has no future, either in the long or short term," Efe news agency quoted Alaa Al Hashimy as saying on Thursday.
"They may opt to change their name to create confusion," he added during a press conference in Madrid.
The diplomat spoke of what he called feeble resistance shown in Mosul since the Iraqi Army and police forces, along with the Kurdish Peshmergas, launched an offensive on October 17 to retake Iraq's second largest city, which was in the jihadist hands since 2014.
"IS resorts to to terrorizing civilians with savage murders, but they are unable to resist Iraqi forces," Al Hashimy said.
"All they know is how to plant bombs and use human shields," he added.
He said that a large district of Mosul had been liberated on Wednesday without anyone having to abandon their homes.
Al Hashimy said Iraqi forces had killed 1,200 IS terrorists and an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 jihadists remained in the city, but the leadership had already fled and all who remained were foreigners and Arabs, but not Iraqis.
The ambassador said the Western-led coalition's airstrikes had provided crucial support to Iraqi ground forces.
He said the next step would be to liberate Tal Afar, where the families of IS terrorists had fled -- on their way to Syria.
