ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq on Sunday marks the sixth anniversary of the country’s announcement of triumph against the international terrorist group known as the Islamic State (ISIS). 

December 10 is now celebrated across areas of Iraq under central government control as an official holiday known as Victory Day.

On his account on the X social media platform, Spokesperson for the Iraqi Commander-in-Chief Yehia Rasool wrote: “On the sixth anniversary of the liberation of our lands from ISIS terrorist gangs, I extend my thanks to the families of our honorable martyrs and to the brave people of our armed forces, especially the wounded, for their great sacrifices for the sake of the great nation.”

On December 10, 2017 the Iraqi Prime Minister at that time Haidar al-Abadi announced that the last areas of the country under ISIS control had been retaken. 

Iraqi forces backed by the US-led international coalition had fought the group since 2014 in battles that led to the loss of thousands of lives. The last urban centers to be retaken by Iraqi forces from ISIS were in the western part of the Anbar province, first al-Qaim and then Rawa, in November 2017.

During the three years of war, the forces taking part in the battles included the Iraqi army, air force, federal and local police, counter-terrorism forces, Shia and Sunni tribal paramilitaries and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, alongside key air support from the US-led global coalition.

The last pockets of IS-held territory in the eastern part of Syria’s Deir al-Zor province under the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) across the border from Iraq’s western Anbar province were taken by the SDF in the Baghouz area over a year later in March 2019.

Many ISIS fighters and commanders as well as some civilians who had stayed during the ISIS occupation of their lands in western Iraq crossed into Syria during the final battles in late 2017 and were later taken to detention facilities as well as the al-Hol camp in northeastern Syria in early 2019. 

Thousands of Iraqi nationals remain in this camp and detention facilities despite continuing efforts to repatriate them.

“Approximately 47,000 individuals from more than 60 countries remain in displaced person camps, 60% of whom are children including nearly 5,000 under the age of five. Repatriation is the only enduring solution,” a US-led coalition statement released on December 9 said.

Six years after the announcement of the territorial defeat of ISIS in Iraq, military and security operations continue in both Iraq and Syria to fight ISIS remnants and prevent any sort of resurgence of the group.

According to the US Central Command, “During the month of November 2023, U.S. Central Command, along with coalition and other partners, conducted a total of 40” operations against ISIS “resulting in 4 ISIS operatives killed and 33 detained”.

“Among the cells disrupted by these operations include one cell responsible for planning attacks against prisons in Syria to free ISIS prisoners held there and another cell with a suicide belt,” it added.

The statement noted that, in Iraq, over the course of last month there had been “24 partnered operations resulted in 3 ISIS operatives killed and 14 ISIS operatives detained.” 

Iraqi security forces announce arrests and operations against suspected members of ISIS on a regular basis. On December 7, for example, statements by the Joint Operations Command circulated by the Iraqi Security Media Cell noted that the Iraqi air force had carried out an airstrike in the Kirkuk province and arrested suspected ISIS members in the Anbar, Kirkuk and Nineveh regions.