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ISIL holds less than 10 per cent of Iraq territory, Fallon confirms

Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has announced, on the second anniversary of UK operations, that ISIL now holds a small fraction of Iraq’s territory, with Iraqi forces currently preparing to encircle the city of Mosul. Fallon made the comment after visiting Baghdad and the northern city of Erbil, to meet Iraqi officials and UK personnel who have been training over 25,000 Iraqi security forces. In the time that since air operations have began, Daesh has been forced to retreat from a number of towns and cities, from Tikrit and Sinjar City to Hit, Ramadi and Fallujah. Fallon commented: “Daesh (ISIL) is being defeated. It is being driven back. It now occupies less than ten per cent of Iraqi territory. So two years on we’re making significant progress. This remains a hard fight. Yet Britain will not waver in our efforts to defeat the evil of our age.”

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