Haider al-Abadi News

PM Haider al-Abadi on Saturday declared victory in a three-year war by Iraqi forces to expel the Islamic State jihadist group.

Haider al-Abadi has said he will not declare the jihadists have been defeated until they have been cleared from the dry valley.

The Islamic State jihadist group has controlled most of the valley in Anbar province since 2014, setting up arms depots and resupply posts.

Iraqi forces launched an operation on Thursday to clear the desert bordering Syria of Islamic State, a final campaign to rid Iraq of the militant group, the military said in a statement.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, whose forces Thursday battled jihadists in the west of the country and Kurds in the north, won the support of Iranian leaders at talks in Tehran.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has arrived in Riyadh in a visit aimed at upgrading strategic ties, amid warming relations between the Arab neighbours.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Thursday announced the liberation of the northern town of al-Hawija from the Islamic State terror group.

In accordance with the Iraqi CAA`s directive, regional airlines began altering their flight schedules. 

Iraq on Tuesday gave the leaders of Iraqi Kurdistan 72 hours to hand over control of airports in the autonomous region or face a ban on international flights.

Iraq has begun an offensive to retake Hawija, one of two remaining bastions of the Islamic State (IS) group in the country, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Thursday.

The drill comes just a week before the Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum on September 25, which was strongly opposed by the Turkish government.

"The joy of victory has been completed and the entire province of Nineveh has become in the hands of our heroic forces," Abadi said.

In Iraq, the jihadist group now only controls the city of Hawija, about 300 kilometres (185 miles) north of Baghdad, and desert areas along the border with Syria.

Separately, 28 Sunni Muslim civilians were kidnapped in the Iskandariya district south of Baghdad this week and 20 of them were found dead later.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over Islamic State in Mosul on Monday, marking the biggest defeat for the hardline Sunni group since its lightning sweep through northern Iraq three years ago.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally declared victory over Islamic State on Monday in a speech on state television, marking the biggest defeat for the group since it declared a caliphate three years ago.

Iraq`s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Sunday "victory" over Islamic State in the city of Mosul, his office said.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared the end of Islamic State's "state of falsehood" a week ago, after security forces retook the mosque - although only after retreating militants blew it up.

Haider al-Abadi spoke during a press conference in Baghdad, less than a week after he declared an end to IS' self-styled caliphate after Iraqi forces achieved an incremental win by retaking the landmark al-Nuri Mosque in the Old City.

But IS fighters hit back with a counterattack that included several suicide bombings against the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters trying to seize control of the city.