Iraq has announced that its war against so-called Islamic State is over.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told a conference in Baghdad that Iraqi troops were now in complete control of the Iraqi-Syrian border.<\/p>\n
The border zone contained the last few areas IS held, following its loss of the town of Rawa in November.<\/p>\n
The Iraqi announcement comes two days after the Russian military declared it had accomplished its mission of defeating IS in neighbouring Syria.<\/p>\n
The jihadist group had seized large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, when it proclaimed a “caliphate” and imposed its rule over some 10 million people.<\/p>\n
But it suffered a series of defeats over the past two years, losing Iraq’s second city of Mosul this July and its de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria last month.<\/p>\n
Some IS fighters are reported to have dispersed into the Syrian countryside, while others are believed to have escaped across the Turkish border.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iraq has announced that its war against so-called Islamic State is over. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told a conference in Baghdad that Iraqi troops were now in complete control of the Iraqi-Syrian border. The border zone contained the last few areas IS held, following its loss of the town of Rawa in November. The Iraqi […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":381540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n