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Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Saturday announced the end of a three-year war by Iraqi forces to drive the Islamic State jihadist group out of the country.
“Our forces are in complete control of the Iraqi-Syrian border and I therefore announce the end of the war against Daesh (IS),” Abadi told a conference in Baghdad.
“Our enemy wanted to kill our civilisation, but we have won through our unity and our determination. We have triumphed in little time,” he said.
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IS seized vast areas north and west of Baghdad in a lightning offensive in 2014, endangering the very existence of the Iraqi state.
Iraq’s fightback was launched with the backing of an air campaign waged by a US-led coalition, recapturing town after town from the clutches of the jihadists.
“I announce the good news: the liberation by Iraqi forces of the whole of the Iraqi-Syrian border,” the prime minister told the conference organised by the Iraqi journalists’ union.
