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MOSUL, Iraq — Government forces raise what they claim to be the biggest Iraqi flag in a ceremony in front of Mosul University, in the eastern half of the city which came under the army control this week, replacing that of their ISIS adversary.
The 13x8 meter flag was raised in place of an ISIS flag and is hoped to be visible from the other side of the Tigris River where the radical militants are still holding out.
Mosul has been under ISIS control since June 2014 and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the full liberation of the eastern side of the city earlier this week.
Military vehicles decorated with flowers and Iraqi flags drove through the streets leading to the site, accompanied by Iraqi soldiers holding the ISIS flag upside down as a sign of the group’s defeat, while cheered by tens of civilians.
One woman told Rudaw that she came to attend the ceremony from Baghdad, hundreds of kilometers south of Mosul.
She said that she wanted to be here “to share the moment with the people of Mosul.”
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