Iraq has “completely liberated” all of its territory that was under the control of Islamic State extremists, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Saturday.
“Your land has been completely liberated,” al-Abadi said in a televised statement to Iraqis.
“The liberation dream has come true. We have achieved victory due to the valour of our troops.”
The announcement came shortly after the Iraqi military said that a three-week offensive in the western province of Anbar was over after driving Islamic State from a large desert area near the Syrian border.
The onslaught was the last stage in a US-backed campaign of around three years to dislodge Islamic State from Iraq.
“We declare to the Iraqi people and the world our arrival at the last stronghold of Daesh in the west of Anbar,” al-Abadi said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
“The Iraqi flag is now fluttering atop the last Daesh bastion.”
Commanders of the Iraqi army’s different branches appeared in the background as al-Abadi made his victory address.
He vowed to fight corruption, in a sign of reaching out to the opposition that has repeatedly claimed rampant graft and mismanagement in the oil-rich country.
“Fighting corruption is an extension of liberation battles. There will be no place for the corrupt in Iraq,” al-Abadi said.
Islamic State is believed to still have sleeper cells in some parts of Iraq.
Five suspected Islamic State bombers on Saturday blew themselves up in the northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk, according to Ali al-Huseini, a spokesman for the government-sanctioned Shiite militia, the Popular Mobilization.
The five had blown themselves up after they were besieged during a massive security operation aimed at purging the area of Islamic State pockets, al-Husseini told Iraqi news portal Alsumaria News.
“The joint forces continue to hunt the organization’s pockets and purge the areas that the terrorist organization still manipulates to carry out attacks,” he added.
The Popular Mobilization has played a key role in Iraq’s drive to regain the territory that Islamic State seized in a mid-2014 blitz.
In recent months, Islamic State has suffered major military setbacks and lost ground in Syria and Iraq where it launched a self-proclaimed caliphate.
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