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Abadi: Daesh «Completely Evicted» from Iraq

Abadi: Daesh «Completely Evicted» from Iraq
folder_openMiddle East... access_time6 years ago
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Local Editor

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday that Iraqi forces had driven the last remnants of the Wahhabi Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"] from the country, three years after the militant group captured about a third of Iraq's territory.

Abadi: Daesh «Completely Evicted» from Iraq

The Iraqi forces recaptured the last areas still under Daesh control along the border with Syria, state television quoted Abadi as telling an Arab media conference in Baghdad.

"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 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 Daesh tweeted its congratulations.

"The Coalition congratulate the people of Iraq on their significant victory against #Daesh. We stand by them as they set the conditions for a secure and prosperous #futureiraq," said the tweet.

Last month Iraqi forces captured Rawa, the last remaining town under Daesh control, near the Syrian border.

Mosul, the group's de facto capital in Iraq, fell in July after a grueling nine-month campaign backed by a US-led coalition that saw much of the northern Iraqi city destroyed.

In September, Daesh's Syrian capital Raqqa also fell.

The forces fighting Daesh in both countries now expect a new phase of guerrilla warfare, a tactic the militants have already shown themselves capable of.

Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who in 2014 had declared in Mosul the founding of a new caliphate, released an audio recording on Sept. 28 that indicated he was alive, after several reports he had been killed. He urged his followers to keep up the fight despite setbacks.

He is believed to be hiding in the stretch of desert in the border area.

Driven from its two de facto capitals, Daesh was progressively squeezed this year into an ever-shrinking pocket of desert, straddling the frontier between the two countries, by enemies that include most regional states and global powers.

In Iraq, the group confronted the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Unit.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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