Alwaght- Iraqi forces and their local allies have liberated Rawa, the last remaining town under the grip of the ISIS terror group, hours after they launched the offensive.
Lieutenant General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah said in a statement from the Joint Operations Command on Friday that Iraqi forces “liberated Rawa entirely, and raised the Iraqi flag over its buildings.”
The force striking Rawa near the border with Syria comprised government troops and paramilitary units.
“With the liberation of Rawa, we can say all the areas in which ISIS is present have been liberated,” Reuters quoted a military spokesman as saying.
The announcement came hours after the Iraqi Defense Ministry said in a statement that military units and local tribal fighters entered the western neighborhoods of Rawa on the Euphrates River in the western province of Anbar.
The recapture marks the end of territorial rule by ISIS in Iraq.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has congratulated the armed forces and Iraqi people on liberation of Rawa.
“Our champions freed Rawa in record time and are resuming the combing of the Jazeera region as well as the desert and securing the Iraqi borders,” Abadi said in a statement on Friday.
“Liberation of Rawa in few hours shows the power and capability of our armed forces as well as the successful plans of the battles,” he added.
The terror group stormed Iraq in 2014, seizing around a third of it in exceptionally-brutal attacks. The conquests included the country’s second-largest city of Mosul, which it boldly named as its so-called headquarters there.
Iraq then enlisted the help The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) paramilitary volunteer fighters, making strides against the Takfiri group.
