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Iraqi forces launched an offensive on Saturday to liberate Rawa, the last remaining town under Daesh control, leaving the group’s self-proclaimed caliphate on the verge of complete defeat.
The liberation of the town would mark the end of the terror group’s era of territorial rule over a so-called caliphate that it proclaimed in 2014 across vast swathes of Iraq and Syria, Reuters wrote.
Two Iraqi infantry divisions and Sunni tribal forces were participating in the offensive to recapture the small town of Rawa and its surrounding areas along the border with Syria, the Joint Operations Command said in a statement.
Rawa and nearby villages were bypassed by government troops and allied fighters when they retook the Syrian border town of Al-Qaim last week.
Iraqi forces retook the larger town of Al-Qaim, in what Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called “record time,” leaving just a few small pockets of land in Daesh’s hands.
Iraq has been carrying out its final campaign to crush Daesh while also mounting a military offensive in the north against the Kurds who held a referendum on secession in September.
The Syrian Army declared victory over the terrorists on Thursday, after seizing the last substantial town on the border with Iraq.
The army and its allies were still fighting Daesh in desert areas near Albu Kamal, the last town the terror group had held in Syria.