Iraq launches offensive on last Daesh-held territory near Syria border

Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi said "Daesh members have to choose between death and surrender," as offensive on Al Qaim and Rawa begins.

Regular army units, Sunni tribal forces and Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation are taking part in the offensive. (Archive)
AFP

Regular army units, Sunni tribal forces and Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation are taking part in the offensive. (Archive)

Iraqi forces launched an offensive on Thursday to recapture the last patch of Iraqi territory still in the hands of Daesh, on the border area with Syria, Prime Minister Haider al Abadi said.

"Daesh members have to choose between death and surrender," he said in a statement announcing the offensive on region of Al Qaim and Rawa.

The Iraqi air force dropped thousands of leaflets on the border area calling on the militants to surrender and urging the population to stay away from their positions, according to a statement from the Joint Operations Command in Baghdad.

"Tell those among your children and relatives who took up a weapon against the state to throw it aside immediately, and to go to any house on top of which a white flag have been raised when the liberation forces enter Al Qaim,'' said the leaflets.

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Regular army units, Sunni tribal forces and Iranian-backed Popular Mobilisation are taking part in the offensive toward the Syrian border, the Joint Operations Command said. 

Daesh also holds parts of the Syrian side of the border, but the area under their control is shrinking as they retreat in the face of two sets of rival forces – US-backed coalition and Syrian regime forces with foreign Shia militias backed by Iran and Russia.

Daesh's self-declared cross-border caliphate effectively collapsed in July, when US-backed Iraqi forces captured Mosul, the group's de facto capital in Iraq, in a gruelling battle which lasted nine months.

The terrorist group's Syrian stronghold, Raqqa, fell to US-backed forces last week.

Daesh leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi released an audio recording on September 28 that indicated he was alive, after several reports he had been killed. 

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