Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Saturday announced the end of a three-year war by Iraqi forces to drive ISIS extremist organization out of the country.
"Our forces are in complete control of the Iraqi-Syrian border and I therefore announce the end of the war against ISIS," Abadi told a conference organized by the Iraqi journalists' union in Baghdad.
"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.
The terrorist group seized vast areas north and west of Baghdad in a lightning offensive in the summer of 2014, endangering the very existence of the Iraqi state.
Iraq's fightback was launched with the backing of an air campaign waged by the US-led coalition, recapturing town after town from the clutches of the militants.
"I announce the good news: the liberation by Iraqi forces of the whole of the Iraqi-Syrian border," the prime minister told the conference.
Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yar Allah, a senior Iraqi military commander, also said Saturday that his country's war against ISIS is over.
He said combat operations against the extremists have concluded after Iraqi forces retook control of the country's border with Syria.
“All Iraqi lands are liberated from terrorist ISIS gangs and our forces completely control the international Iraqi-Syrian border," the statement said.
