Iraq launches new push against ISIS holdouts as PM Abadi eyes victory

Iraqi forces announced a new drive against holdout Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) fighters in the western desert Friday. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said he will not declare the jihadists have been defeated until they have been cleared from the dry valleys and other natural hideouts, AFP reports. The extremists lost their last urban centers last month. Troops and paramilitary Hashed al-Shaabi forces “launched a major drive to clear areas of the Al-Jazeera region between Nineveh and Anbar [provinces] in the second phase of operations,” Joint Operations Command said. In a first phase of operations launched on November 23, government forces moving south from Nineveh and north from Anbar already linked up. Large parts of the desert between the Tigris and Euphrates valleys were cleared.