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Iraq Recaptures Last ISIS-held Town of Rawa

Iraq Recaptures Last ISIS-held Town of Rawa

Friday, 17 November, 2017 - 10:30
Iraqi pro-government forces advance towards the town of Rawa, on the Euphrates river, on Oct 28, 2017. AFP photo

Iraq forces captured the Euphrates Valley border town of Rawa, the last remaining town under ISIS control, on Friday, the Iraqi military said in a statement.


Iraqi forces "liberated Rawa entirely, and raised the Iraqi flag over its buildings," Lieutenant General Abdul Ameer Rasheed Yarallah said in a statement from the Joint Operations Command.


Rawah, 175 miles (275 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad, lies along the Euphrates River valley near the border town of Qaim that Iraqi forces retook from ISIS earlier this month.


The US-led coalition battling ISIS said on Thursday that the terrorist group had lost 95 percent of the cross-border "caliphate" that they declared in Iraq and Syria in 2014.


The announcement of Rawa’s liberation came as Syrian forces battled for a second day to retake the town of Albu Kamal just across the border. 


The recapture of the Rawa pocket marks the final battleground defeat of ISIS in Iraq.


The extremist group’s occupation of northern Iraq and the battle to defeat it has caused more than $100 billion worth of damage, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Saturday.


"That's just the damage to the economy and infrastructure,” he said.


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