Pentagon said on Monday that the ISIL Takfiri group has continued losing control over territory across Iraq and Syria, including almost half of what it had once held in Iraq.

Pentagon said on Monday that the ISIL Takfiri group has continued losing control over territory across Iraq and Syria,  including almost half of what it had once held in Iraq.

The Defense Department had previously estimated that the Takfiri militants had lost control of about 40 percent of the territory they claimed in Iraq and about 10 percent of the land they held in Syria.

Those tallies had gone up in recent weeks, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.

The number right now in Iraq is about 45 percent of the territory they once held has been recovered," Cook said.

"The number in Syria is anywhere between 16 to 20 percent."

ISIL terrorists stormed across large parts of Iraq and Syria in early 2014, meeting little resistance from Iraqi security forces and exploiting the chaos in Syria.

The Takfiris have lost control of Ramadi and Heet in Iraq, following military operations launched by Iraqi army and paramilitary forces.