- Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi said his forces had regained control of Syrian border
- It comes after Iraqi forces announced a new drive against holdout IS fighters
- At the peak of its power in 2014, IS ruled some seven million people in a territory
Iraq’s prime minister has announced ‘the end of the war’ in Iraq against the Islamic State group.
Speaking at a conference in Baghdad, Haider al-Abadi said his forces had regained control of the border with Syria.
‘Our forces are in complete control of the Iraqi-Syrian border and I therefore announce the end of the war against Daesh (IS),’ Abadi said.
Speaking at a conference in Baghdad, Haider al-Abadi said his forces had regained control of the border with Syria
The announcement comes after Iraqi forces announced a new drive against holdout Islamic State group fighters in the western desert on Friday.
Troops and paramilitary Hashed al-Shaabi forces ‘launched a major drive to clear areas of the Al-Jazeera region between Nineveh and Anbar (provinces) in the second phase of operations,’ Joint Operations Command said in a statement.
In a first phase of operations launched on November 23, government forces moving south from Nineveh and north from Anbar already linked up, clearing large parts of the desert between the Tigris and Euphrates valleys.
JOC spokesman General Yahya Rassoul said on November 27 that they had already cleared 50 percent of the total area of the desert of around 29,000 square kilometres (11,000 sq miles).
At the peak of its power in 2014, IS ruled some seven million people in a territory as large as Italy, encompassing large parts of Syria and nearly a third of Iraq.
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