Alwaght- Iraqi forces have retaken the town of Hawija and the surrounding area from ISIS Takfiri terrorist group, the country's military said in a statement.
With the liberation of Hawija, the ISIS's last stronghold in northern Iraq, the only area that remains under control of the group in Iraq is a stretch alongside the western border with Syria.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has confirmed that Iraqi armed forces have liberated Hawija.
Speaking from the French capital on Thursday, Abadi said, “I announce the liberation of the city of Hawijah,” adding, “Only the outskirts remain to be recaptured.”
The premier described the latest gain as a “victory not just of Iraq but of the whole world.”
The military said Hawija, located in Iraq’s oil-rich Kirkuk Province, and its surrounding areas were recaptured from ISIS following a weeks-long offensive.
The offensive was carried out by Iraqi government troops and the paramilitary group known as Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) better known as Hashd al-Sha’abi.
"The army's 9th armored division, the Federal Police, the Emergency Response division and (…) Popular Mobilisation liberated Hawija," said a statement from the joint operations commander, Lieutenant-General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah, on Thursday.
Major General Raid Shaker Jawdat, commander of Iraq's Federal Police, said "the federal forces liberated the district of Hawija, the Hawija hospital as well as the Askari, Nidaa and Thawra neighbourhoods, and are in control of the centre of the province of Hawija in full".
Hawija lies between the two major routes north from Baghdad – to the second city Mosul, and to Kirkuk City and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region.
Mosul used to serve as the terror group’s main urban holdout in Iraq before its historic liberation in July.
ISIS has been driven out of most of the territory it managed to seize in Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014.
The notorious terror group has been driven out of most of the territory it managed to seize in Iraq and neighboring Syria in 2014.
In Syria, ISIS terrorists are mainly holed up in the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor, where they are on their last leg in the face of operations by the Syrian military, supported by Russia.
