Iraq has announced, its war against Islamic State is over

Iraq has announced that its war against Islamic State is over. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told a conference in Baghdad that Iraqi troops are now in complete control of the Iraqi-Syrian border. The Iraqi announcement comes two days after the Russian military declared it had accomplished its mission of defeating IS in neighbouring Syria.

The IS had seized large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, when it proclaimed a 'caliphate' and imposed its rule over some 10 million people. But it suffered a series of defeats over the past two years, losing Iraq's second city of Mosul this July and its de facto capital of Raqqa in northern Syria last month.