ISIS is on the brink of defeat in Iraq after being driven out of its last northern stronghold.
Iraqi government forces yesterday stormed the city of Hawija, killing 196 jihadists and recapturing 98 surrounding villages.
Dozens of ISIS fighters, pushed back by Iraqi forces, surrendered to the Kurdistan Regional Government in the north.
Video posted online appears to show jihadists – some wearing various football shirts – surrendering on their knees.
One can be seen in an England shirt while others wear the names of their footballing heroes including Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Mario Gotze.
Video posted online by BBC reporter Feras Kilani appears to show jihadis – some wearing various football shirts – surrendering on their knees
Fighters from the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation units), backing the Iraqi forces, pose in front of a mural depicting the emblem of the Islamic State as troops advance through Hawija
The victory means the only territory ISIS has left in Iraq is a stretch alongside the western border with Syria.
The three-pronged offensive was carried out by US-backed Iraqi government troops and Iranian-trained and armed Shi’ite paramilitary groups known as Popular Mobilisation.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said after talks with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris: ‘I announce the liberation of the city of Hawija. Only the outskirts remain to be recaptured.’
He called the success ‘a victory not just for Iraq but for the whole world,’ adding ‘we should chase this terrorist organisation everywhere’.
A statement from the joint operations commander, Lieutenant-General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah, read: ‘The army’s ninth armoured division, the Federal Police, the Emergency Response division and Popular Mobilisation liberated Hawija.’
Iraq launched an offensive on September 21 to dislodge Islamic State from the area north of Baghdad where up to 78,000 people were estimated to be trapped, according to the United Nations.
The militants continue to control the border town of al-Qaim and the region surrounding it.
One ISIS fighter was seen wearing a Lionel Messi shirt as he knelt in surrender to the KRG
Fighters from the Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation units), backing the Iraqi forces, secure a street as troops advance
Members of the Iraqi forces advance through Hawija on October 5, 2017, after retaking the city from Islamic State
Iraqi government forces yesterday stormed the city of Hawija, killing 196 jihadists and recapturing 98 surrounding villages
They also hold parts of Syrian side of the border, but the area under their control is shrinking as they retreat in the face of two different sets of hostile forces – a US-backed, Kurdish-led coalition and Syrian government troops with foreign Shi’ite militias backed by Iran and Russia.
Islamic State’s cross-border ‘caliphate’ effectively collapsed in July, when US-backed Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group’s de facto capital in Iraq, in a gruelling battle which lasted nine months.
The militants’ leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who declared the caliphate from Mosul in mid-2014, released an audio recording last week that indicated he was alive, after several reports he had been killed.
He called on his followers to keep up the fight despite the setbacks.
Meanwhile, in Syria: Members of Syrian Democratic Forces hold a flag of the Islamic State militants recovered at a building next to the stadium in Raqqa
Raqqa: 20 members of ISIS were killed and 15 others were wounded by Coalition Forces shelling them near water well in al-Badou neighborhood in Raqqa yesterday