Abadi set to declare IS vanquished

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider alAbadi said on Tuesday that Islamic State had been defeated from a military perspective but he would only declare final victory after IS militants were routed in the desert.

Iraqi forces last Friday captured the border town of Rawa, the last remaining town under Islamic State control, signalling the collapse of the group’s “caliphate” proclaimed after it overran much of Iraq’s north and west in 2014.

Securing desert and border areas is what remains in the campaign against Islamic State, military commanders say.

Mr Abadi’s comments came as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared the end of Islamic State while a senior Iranian military commander thanked the “thousands of martyrs” killed in operations organised by Iran to defeat the militants in Syria and Iraq.

Political disagreements will pave the way for the Sunni militant group to carry out attacks, however, Mr Abadi said. He was referring to the central Baghdad government’s dispute with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government over the latter’s declaration of independence following a Sept 25 referendum.

Hours before Mr Abadi spoke, at least 23 people were killed and 60 wounded when a suicide bomber set off a truck bomb near a marketplace in the northern Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmatu, south of the oil city of Kirkuk.

Mr Abadi, addressing a weekly news conference, hailed a federal court verdict on Monday that ruled the Kurdish referendum unconstitutional and called on Kurds not to resort to violence.