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| Mosul: Iraq PM to celebrate victory over IS in the city | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi has arrived in Mosul to congratulate Iraqi forces for their victory over IS in the city. | |
| Mr Abadi was in the city to announce its "liberation" and declare "victory", his office said in a statement. | |
| Iraqi forces, backed by US-led air strikes, have been battling to retake Mosul since 17 October last year. | |
| Islamic State militants seized it in June 2014 before taking much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland and proclaiming a "caliphate" straddling Iraq and Syria. | |
| Kurdish Peshmerga fighters, Sunni Arab tribesmen and Shia militiamen have also been involved in the battle. | |
| The Iraqi prime minister arrived to "congratulate the armed forces and the Iraqi people" on the final defeat of IS in Mosul on Sunday, the statement said. | |
| Iraqi forces had been battling remaining pockets of jihadists desperately holding out in a tiny area near the Old City. | |
| The government announced the full "liberation" of eastern Mosul in January, but the west of the city has presented a more difficult challenge, with its narrow, winding streets. | |
| Some 900,000 people have been displaced from the city since 2014 - about half the the pre-war population - aid organisations say. |