BAGHDAD — Iraq said Saturday that its war on the Daesh (the so-called IS) group is over after more than three years of combat operations drove the extremists from all of the territory they once held.

Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi announced Iraqi forces were in full control of the country’s border with Syria during remarks at a conference in Baghdad, and his spokesman said the development marked the end of the military fight against IS.

“Our forces are in complete control of the Iraqi-Syrian border and I therefore announce the end of the war against Daesh (IS),” Abadi told a conference 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.

“I announce the good news: the liberation by Iraqi forces of the whole of the Iraqi-Syrian border,” the prime minister told the conference organized by the Iraqi journalists’ union.

A senior military commander confirmed that combat operations had been completed.

“All Iraqi lands are liberated from terrorist Daesh gangs and our forces completely control the international Iraqi-Syrian border,” Lt. Gen. Abdul-Amir Rasheed Yar Allah said in a statement released shortly after Al-Abadi’s remarks. — Agencies