Leading US military commander warns of 'ISIS 2.0' emerging in Iraq

A leading US military commander has warned that ‘ISIS 2.0’ could emerge after Iraqi forces continue to flush the last ISIS militants from the city of Mosul.

In the last week, Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared a ‘total victory’ over Isis in a visit to the city after a major assault to take it back was launched in October 2016.

But despite the apparent success, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the top U.S. Commander in Iraq, has warned that Isis could re-emerge if the government does not connect with disaffected sunni Muslims.

He said: ‘If we’re to keep… ISIS 2.0 from emerging, the Iraqi government is going to have to do something pretty significantly different. They’re going to have to reach out and reconcile with the Sunni population, and make them feel like their government in Baghdad represents them.’

His sentiment was echoed by a diplomat who stressed the need to ‘stick around and get the job done’ in order to prevent ISIS from flourishing.

The victory over ISIS comes after young survivors of their brutal rule recently opened up on how they were forced to dismember captured soldiers when threatened with their own death.

In a documentary produced by Australian news network SBS, an 11-year-old girl recalled how she was told: ‘“You cut off a foot, you cut off an arm, and you slash his face with a knife Otherwise I’ll take you away from your mother and kill you all.”

It is also claimed that Isis used civilians as human shields, and hung bodies from electricity pylons to warn invading forces.