Iraqi forces retake last ISIS-held town

BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces wrested back the final piece of the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate, the country’s military said on Friday, reclaiming the small town of Rawa near the border with Syria.

The Islamic State extremist group, which at its peak in 2014 held about one-third of Iraq including large cities like Mosul, Tikrit and Fallujah, is now scattered and severely diminished. With the loss of Rawa, the extremists can no longer claim to hold territory in Iraq and are quickly ceding ground in Syria as well.

Still, Iraqi officials warn, the Islamic State poses a threat as it turns to more traditional terrorist tactics. Since losing its de facto capital of Mosul in July, the militant group has been able to stage deadly suicide bombings and its gunmen have struck civilians throughout Iraq.

Rawa is a small and sparsely populated town about 68 miles east of the Syrian border, which was surrounded by Iraqi forces for several weeks as they worked to clear the nearby towns of Qaim and Ana. Iraqi troops, backed by militia fighters and U.S. airstrikes, entered Rawa early Friday and encountered little resistance, commanders said.

Brig. Gen. Yehya Rasool, a spokesman for the Iraqi forces, said the fight in Rawa lasted about five hours after troops entered the town. He said “a limited number” of militants had been inside Rawa and they “couldn’t withstand our forces”

“Some of them died and others fled toward the desert,” he added.

Rasool said combat operations are ongoing, with troops chasing fleeing militants into the vast western Anbar desert.

On Friday afternoon, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi congratulated the Iraqi forces “in record time” in a statement that stopped short of declaring full victory over the Islamic State.

He said troops will continue to fight in the desert and work toward securing the nearby border with Syria.

“Daesh crumbles!” the spokesman for the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State coalition said in a Twitter post, using the Arabic acronym for the militant group. “Iraqi Security Forces liberate Rawa, last urban area in Iraq held by ISIS.”