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Iraq holds military parade celebrating victory over Daesh

December 10, 2017
Military planes fly during an Iraqi military parade in Baghdad on Sunday. — Reuters
Military planes fly during an Iraqi military parade in Baghdad on Sunday. — Reuters

BAGHDAD — An Iraqi military parade celebrating final victory over Daesh (the so-called IS) was organized in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, an Iraqi military spokesman told Reuters on Sunday.

Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi declared final victory over Daesh on Saturday after Iraqi forces drove its last remnants from the country, three years after the militant group captured about a third of Iraq's territory.

Iraqi forces recaptured the last areas still under Daesh control along the border with Syria and secured the western desert, Abadi said, thus marking the end of the war against the militants.

His announcement comes two days after the Russian military announced the defeat of the militants in neighbouring Syria, where Moscow is backing Syrian government forces.

Abadi declared Dec. 10 an annual national holiday.

The parade was not being broadcast live and only state media was allowed to attend, but several squadrons of Iraqi helicopters flew over Baghdad on Saturday carrying Iraqi flags in an rehearsal for the victory parade.

Fighter jets were seen and heard flying over Baghdad's skies on Sunday. (

"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, hailing Iraq's "heroic armed forces".

The US State Department hailed the end of the Daesh's "vile occupation" but cautioned that the fight was not over.

"The United States joins the Government of Iraq in stressing that Iraq's liberation does not mean the fight against terrorism, and even against ISIS (IS), in Iraq is over," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

The coalition, meanwhile, tweeted, using an Arabic acronym for IS: "Congratulations to the government of Iraq and the Iraqi security forces on the liberation of all Daesh-held populated areas in Iraq."

Hisham Al-Hashemi, an expert on the Daesh groups, warned that IS still posed a threat by retaining arms caches in uninhabited desert zones.

Iraq's close ally Iran already declared victory over IS last month, as the jihadists clung to just a few remaining scraps of territory.

But Abadi said at the time he would not follow suit until the desert on the border with Syria had been cleared.

However the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Saturday said IS fighters had managed to seize territory in Syira's Idlib province.

The head of Iraq's Joint Operations Command set up to fight IS, General Abdel Amir Yarallah, gave an update on Saturday to announce that the desert valley of Al-Jazira was under the control of Iraqi troops and the Hashed all the way from Nineveh province in the north to Anbar in the west. — Agencies


December 10, 2017
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