Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

The Iraqi Government has regained control over 90 percent of the country's territory, seized by militants of the Islamic State (IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) terrorist group.

This was announced by Iraq’s government press-secretary Saad al-Khadisi, RIA Novosti reported.

"The situation has changed radically. We went from the defense of Baghdad and the southern provinces to the offense and began to liberate cities and districts one after another with limited weapons capabilities, compared to the period before the government’s formation. Here are Iraqi soldiers of various formations - they are ready to put a decisive end to terrorism after having freed 90 percent of the territory under terrorists’ control. The final victory is close," al-Khadisi was quoted by the press service.

The Iraqi army lost a third of weapons and equipment after the onset of the ISIS troops, according to the representative of the prime minister.

Over 2.2 million refugees have already returned to the areas liberated from militants.

The Iraqi army liberated Mosul and Tall Afar from ISIS in early 2017. Currently, the army is preparing for the storming of the city of El-Ha'wij, located in the north of the country. Almost 2,000 ISIS terrorists are in the city.

On July 10, Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi officially announced victory over the IS in Mosul. The city has been under the IS control since June 2014. The victory marks the beginning of a long work on rebuilding the city.

Abadi's announcement of victory over ISIS was met with international praise from a number of countries still actively battling the militants, including the U.S., Russia, Iran and Syria, where the remaining half of ISIS's self-proclaimed caliphate lies.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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