Iraqi PM declares end to war against ISIL in Iraq

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Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has declared the "end of the war" against ISIL in the country.

"Our forces are in complete control of the Iraqi-Syrian border and I therefore announce the end of the war against Daesh (ISIL)," Abadi told a conference in Baghdad on Saturday.

"Our enemy wanted to kill our civilization, but we have won through our unity and our determination. We have triumphed in little time."

The Iraqi military also made a victory announcement, saying the liberation of all Iraqi lands from ISIL has been completed and "our heroic forces have tightened their grab on the Iraqi-Syrian border."

A member of Iraqi Federal Police waves an Iraqi flag as officers celebrate victory in military operations against ISIL in West Mosul, Iraq on July 2. /Reuters Photo‍

The army forces and the paramilitary Hashd Shaabi brigades, backed by Iraqi helicopter gunships, managed to take control of the whole desert area between the provinces of Nineveh and Anbar, said Lt Gen. Abdul Amir Rasheed Yarallah, commander of western Iraq operations.

The troops took control of over 90 villages and cleared 16,000 sq km in the last operation during the past 24 hours, he said.

The Iraqi forces are now in control of some 183 km from the Iraq-Syrian border, Yarallah added.

ISIL seized almost one third of Iraq, including Mosul, in a lightning offensive in 2014. During the past three and a half years, Iraq had fought back with the backing of an air campaign waged by a US-led coalition, recapturing town after town from the clutches of the jihadists. Though ISIL has lost all strongholds in Iraq, they are still thought able to launch a sudden attack.

(With inputs from Xinhua)

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