London: Islamic State militants trapped in their besieged Syrian and Iraqi capitals Raqqa and Mosul are "fighting for their lives" and not plotting terror attacks on the west, the spokesman for the global coalition fighting IS in the Middle East says.
But Major General Rupert Jones said exposing the fundamentalists' narrative was critical as it has inspired numerous attacks across Europe, including three in three months in London, all of which IS has claimed responsibility for.
![Major General Rupert Jones is a spokesman for the Global Coalition fighting Islamic State.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170629040241im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/n/l/y/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwz1ia.png/1498484372788.jpg)
Speaking to international journalists in London via video link in Baghdad, the Major General said Mosul is poised to fall with the militants blowing up the Al Nuri mosque, where leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the caliphate in 2014, last week. He said the destruction of the mosque was a sign of the militants' desperation and showed that they did not value religion.
"Daesh are under extraordinary pressure and when you're under pressure in Raqqa and when you're under pressure in Mosul, trust me what you're not doing is sitting there plotting attacks into Europe and elsewhere," he said.
![On the cusp of losing control of Mosul and with it its claim to a caliphate, the US claimed IS destroyed the al-Nuri ...](http://web.archive.org./web/20170629040241im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/w/r/t/7/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwz1ia.png/1498485622008.jpg)
"You are fighting for your life. That is what Daesh are doing right now, so that means their ability to plan and direct attacks is very significantly derailing."
London has suffered three terrorist attacks in as many months. In March, Khalid Masood killed five people and injured 50 more when he drove a car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge. He then stabbed to death a policeman Keith Palmer who was guarding the parliament before he himself was shot dead, in an attack that lasted just 82 seconds.
In April, 22-year old Salman Abedi killed 22 people attending an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester by detonating a homemade bomb. Abedi is the son of Libyan refugees. His father and brother are in custody in Tripoli and the possibility that Abedi was radicalised by ISIS in Libya has not been ruled out.
In June, three men, 22-year-old Youssef Zaghba, from east London and an Italian national of Morrocan descent, 27-year old Khuram Butt, a British citizen of Barking but Pakistani by birth and 30-year old Rachid Redouane also from Barking killed eight people in an attack lasting as many minutes.
![It was the mosque where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared a caliphate in 2014.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170629040241im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/v/z/y/1/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwz1ia.png/1498484372788.jpg)
Their victims included Australian nurse Kirsty Boden and au pair Sara Zelenak. The attack began when they rammed a rented white van into people on London Bridge and embarked on a mass stabbing attack on people enjoying a Saturday night out at Southwark's popular Borough Market. Eyewitnesses report hearing the men saying "this is for Allah" before carrying out their murder.
The Major General acknowledged that the attacks on innocent people in Europe were "inspired" rather than directed by IS, which means that exposing their philosophy is just as important as rooting them out of their Middle Eastern strongholds.
"What we are doing, with the global coalition, is exposing Daesh's narrative for the lie that it is," he said. This, combined with cooperation from Turkey in sealing the border, had "dried up" the flow of foreign fighters from a peak of 1,500 per month in January 2015, he said.
"People do not want to buy into this narrative, because they know how it ends."
The global coalition has repeatedly said that the fall of Mosul would only be a matter of time but the battle, which began in October last year, has been increasingly protracted.
Following a visit to east Mosul last week, the Major General said he was optimistic, that despite the destruction the fighting has caused in the city, locals would be able to return home as seen in other parts of Iraq including in the liberated cities of Ramadi and Fallujah.
"Progress from the positive green shoots I saw when I was last there in March was hugely encouraging."
"Day by day the city is returning to normality - security is good, allowing Iraqi forces to reduce their profile."
He said the markets he visited were "humming with activity and trade".
"Frankly I could have been anywhere in the Middle East."