10 December,2017 01:17 PM IST | Baghdad | Agencies
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday that Iraqi forces had driven the last remnants of Islamic State from the country, three years after the militant group captured about a third of Iraq's territory
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday that Iraqi forces had driven the last remnants of Islamic State from the country, three years after the militant group captured about a third of Iraq's territory. The Iraqi forces recaptured the last areas still under IS control along the border with Syria, state television quoted Abadi as telling an Arab media conference in Baghdad.
Iraqi troops celebrate after capturing a city from IS. Pic/aFP
"Commander-in-Chief @HaiderAlAbadi announces that Iraq's armed forces have secured the western desert & the entire Iraq Syria border, says this marks the end of the war against Daesh [ISIS] terrorists who have been completely defeated and evicted from Iraq," the federal government's official account tweeted. In a separate tweet later, Abadi said: "Our heroic armed forces have now secured the entire length of the Iraq-Syria border. We defeated Daesh through our unity and sacrifice for the nation. Long live Iraq and its people." The US-led coalition that has been supporting Iraqi force against Islamic State tweeted its congratulations. Mosul, the group's de facto capital in Iraq, fell in July after a gruelling nine-month campaign backed by a US-led coalition that saw much of the northern Iraqi city destroyed.
3 No. of years that Islamic State has been in Iraq
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