Fallujah

Iraqi security forces launched an offensive to take back the city of Tal Afar on Aug. 20, their next objective in the U.S.-backed campaign to defeat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said.

"You either surrender, or die," Abadi said in a televised speech announcing the offensive, addressing the militants. 

The U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant denied yesterday responsibility for an attack near the Syrian border which killed dozens of members of an Iraqi Shi'ite militia and, that group said, several of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

Nearly nine months after the start of the offensive against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to retake Mosul after three years, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory and government control of his country's second largest city on July 9.

Earlier this week, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared "victory" over Islamic State in Mosul.

A drone video published by AP showed the state of the city after the battle.

U.S. President Donald Trump hailed Iraq's "victory" over Islamic State of Iraq and tLevant (ISIL) in Mosul on July 10, sayinhg that the northern city's liberation showed the war against the jihadis was being won.

"The victory in Mosul" signals ISIL's "days in Iraq and Syria are numbered," Trump said in a statement praising Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

The Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory this Sunday afternoon in the freed city of Mosul. This happens after devastating 9 month fights against the jihadist organization Islamic State.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on July 9 "victory" over Islamic State Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the city of Mosul, his office said.

"The commander in chief of the armed forces (Prime Minister) Haider al-Abadi arrived in the liberated city of Mosul and congratulated the heroic fighters and the Iraqi people for the great victory," said a statement from his office.

Some 300 Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters remain in the small patch of territory still controlled by the group in Mosul's Old City, a senior Iraqi commander said on July 5.

After eight months of grinding urban warfare, Iraqi government troops on June 29 captured the ruined mosque in Mosul from where Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) proclaimed its self-styled caliphate three years ago, the Iraqi military said.

Iraq's military said June 28 that it had retaken two more neighborhoods from Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Mosul's Old City, bringing it closer to total control of the city.