Iraq announces it has completely defeated IS

BAGHDAD. KAZINFORM The Iraqi prime minister on Saturday announced the liberation of the last remaining Iraqi region under the Islamic State terror organization's control, near the border with Syria, EFE reports.

Haidar al-Abadi asserted that the war against IS had ended now that Iraqi forces had recaptured the border region.

"Our forces have now taken total control of our borders with Syria," al-Abadi stated at a press conference in Baghdad.

On Thursday, the Russian military announced that IS had been completely defeated on the Syrian side of the border.

The end of Iraq's military operations against IS in the provinces of Nineveh and al-Anbar was confirmed by a senior Iraqi military commander, Gen. Abd al-Amir Yaralla.

The general stated that the recapture of all Iraqi territory from IS extremists had been completed, and that Iraqi forces controlled the border from the al-Walid border crossing to the al-Rabia crossing.

In the summer of 2014, IS militants launched a broad offensive in Syria and Iraq, eventually taking over large swaths of both countries' territory, but were pushed back in a series of defeats.

In June, Iraqi forces regained control of the country's second largest city, Mosul, while in Syria, the Islamic State's capital Raqqa was recaptured in October