Iraq Prime Minister Declares Victory Over ISIS<br />Mr. Abadi’s carefully calibrated statement came months after armed forces had wrested back control over Iraq’s major urban areas, notably its second-largest city, Mosul,<br />and had shifted focus to mopping up remnants of the militants who had escaped or gone underground in the vast desert border areas between Iraq and Syria.<br />Arabic said that Our forces fully control the Iraqi-Syrian border, and thus we can announce the end of the war against Daesh,<br />Supported by By Margaret Coker and Falih Hassan BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq declared victory over the Islamic State on Saturday, announcing<br />the end of more than three years of battles to regain control over nearly one-third of the country that had been under the terrorist group’s dominion.<br />Among the urgent challenges officials now face to ensure security<br />and stability are reconstruction plans for cities like Mosul, which was destroyed by the fighting, as well as reconciliation programs for the country’s Sunni and Shiite communities, said Hussein Allawi, a professor of national security at Al Nahrain University in Baghdad.<br />Hakim al-Zamili, who leads Parliament’s security and defense committee, estimates<br />that about 20,000 hard-core supporters of the Islamic State remain in the country, hidden among the large groups of displaced people or in remote areas of the western deserts.<br />Wathiq said that Iraq still needs the intelligence cooperation with the international coalition<br />and neighboring countries because there are many places for ISIS to hide,
