Is ISIS in retreat?

ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has admitted defeat in Iraq and ordered militants to either flee or kill themselves in suicide attacks, Iraqi television network Alsumaria reported.

The terror mastermind is said to have issued a statement called 'farewell speech' which was distributed among ISIS preachers and clerics in parts of Iraq it still controls.

"Calling his speech a farewell address, al-Baghdadi circulated it among ISIS preachers and explained what was going on with the group. The preachers started talking about the defeats Daesh is suffering in Nineveh province and other parts of Iraq," the channel reported with reference to the source.

According to local media, he urged supporters to run and hide in the mountains of Syria and Iraq and told 'non-Arab fighters' to either return home or blow themselves up.

The commander of Iraq's Federal Police, Lt. Gen. Raid Shakir Jaudat, said ISIS militants in western Mosul were increasingly cut off from each other and that their leaders were fleeing the remaining pockets of militant control.

"The terrorist organization ISIS is living in a state of shock, confusion and defeat, and its fighters are fighting in isolated groups. Our field intelligence units indicate that the terrorist organization is falling apart, and its leadership is running away from Mosul," CNN cited him as saying.

A military observer of the TASS news agency, retired Colonel Viktor Litovkin, speaking with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, stressed that the ISIS militants extruded from Iraq can be used by their sponsors in other countries. "I do not think that it is a closure of the terrorist project, because apart from Iraq and Syria there are Africa and Afghanistan, as well as efforts to penetrate into Central Asia will continue. Perhaps the group will change its name, but it will not be disbanded, because there are objective causes for the existence of international terrorism - poverty, hunger, lack of education and a variety of diseases," he explained.

"Funding of ISIS will continue as it is beneficial to many countries, including the United States. To some extent it is beneficial to Israel, which has never opposed ISIS. It is also beneficial to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. In addition to poor people, there are those who just love to fight and plunder. The group's signboard will be changed, but it is the maximum that can be expected," Victor Litovkin concluded.