Alwaght- Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi has declared on Saturday the end of the war against ISIS terrorist group in the country.
ISIS terrorists have been driven from all the territory they once held inside Iraq, al-Abadi announced in Baghdad.
The Iraqi forces recaptured the last areas under ISIS control along the border with Syria, state television quoted al-Abadi as telling an Arab media conference in Baghdad. "Our forces are in complete control of the Iraqi-Syrian border and I therefore announce the end of the war against Daesh," Abadi added, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS
"Our enemy wanted to kill our civilization, but we have won through our unity and our determination. We have triumphed in little time," he said.
In a separate tweet later, al-Abadi said: “Our heroic armed forces have now secured the entire length of the Iraq-Syria border. We defeated ISIS through our unity and sacrifice for the nation. Long live Iraq and its people.”
Meanwhile, an Iraqi senior military commander said his country's war against the ISIS terrorist group is over.
In an announcement on Saturday, Lt General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah said that armed operations against the fighters have ended after Iraqi forces regained control of the country's border with Syria.
"All Iraqi lands are liberated from terrorist Daesh gangs and our forces completely control the international Iraqi-Syrian borders," Yarallah said in a statement.
The areas conquered by the Iraqi army were the last part of Iraqi territory in the hands of ISIS. Last month, Iraqi forces announced the recapture of al-Qaim, the ISIS's last border stronghold in Iraq.
Just six months ago, the group still controlled vast expanses of territory, including major cities, on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.
The quick advance of ISIS in Iraq started in 2014. The group rapidly captured important cities like Mosul, Ramadi and Fallujah.
Consolidating control over the areas turned out to be hard as the Iraqi government and the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) formed a formidable coalition to defeat ISIS in Iraq.
In October 2016, this coalition started an important push to recapture Mosul, ISIS's main city in Iraq. Late July, victory was officially declared over ISIS in Mosul.
Since then, the Iraqi government troops aided by PMF have recaptured swaths of land occupied by the group.
