PM al-Abadi tells nation IS defeated in Iraq

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi says the fight against the Islamic State group is over after more than three years of combat operations.

In an address to the nation aired on Iraqi state television, Al-Abadi says Iraqi forces retook the last IS strongholds in the country Saturday.

Flanked by senior commanders, Al-Abadi says: "The Iraqi flag is flying high today over all Iraqi territory and at the farthest point on the border."

Iraqi forces mopped up the last pockets of IS fighters from Iraq's western deserts Saturday, securing the country's border with Syria.

IS fighters overran nearly a third of Iraqi territory, including Mosul, the country's second largest city in the summer of 2014, declaring a caliphate that stretched from northern Syria to the outskirts of Baghdad.