Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory in Mosul over ISIS, roughly three years after the group took control over the city and about nine months after his country launched an operation to retake the area. Troops from Iraqi Special Forces marked the victory by planting the Iraqi flag on the bank of the Tigris River. Al-Iraqia TV quoted Abadi as saying he “congratulates the heroic fighters and the people on the big victory” in Iraq’s second-largest city, even as fighting rang out in pockets near the militants’ last stand at the Tigris River. According to Iraqi media, Islamic State militants seized Mosul in the summer of 2014 when they swept across northern and central Iraq. That summer, the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, appeared at Mosul’s al-Nuri Mosque and declared a caliphate on territory it seised in Iraq and Syria. Iraq launched the operation to retake Mosul in October, backed by airstrikes from the US-led coalition. The fierce battle has killed thousands and displaced more than 897,000 people.
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