Several Islamic State (IS) fighters in Iraq have submitted sick leave applications in order not to participate in the frontline of the group’s battles over several diseases, the US-lead coalition forces announced Tuesday.
The forces have revealed sick day leave requested presented by fighters with the Islamic State’s Tariq ibn Ziyad brigade operating in Iraq asking to be exempted from fight in frontlines due to diseases include headache, back pain and stomach ulcer.
The Tariq Ibn Ziyad brigade is a European foreign terrorist fighter cell that was created in 2015 and has provided operatives for IS attacks in Iraq, Syria and abroad. The brigade at one time numbered as many as 300 fighters.
The brigade was created by Abdelilah Himich, also known as Abu Sulayman al-Faransi.
Himich was also reportedly involved in the planning of ISIL’s November 2015 Paris attacks and March 2016 Brussels attacks,” the US government said in a statement in November.
Iraq's prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said eastern Mosul has been "fully liberated" from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group.
Abadi's announcement on Tuesday came 100 days after a US-backed operation to retake the city began.
The Iraqi-led forces encircling western Mosul are preparing to launch a final offensive against IS fighters barricaded in the luxury houses they seized for use as headquarters, prisons, kitchens, barracks and slaughterhouses. Many of the opulent homes are located on defensible high ground, affording them clear sight lines for IS snipers to target the Iraqi forward units, especially the Golden Division spearhead. The houses are laced with IEDs, explosive booby traps hidden in toys, cars, flower pots and corpses.