Iraq will declare victory in the eight-month battle to retake second city Mosul from Takfiri terrorists in the “next few days,” a senior commander said on Friday.

“In the next few days, we will announce the final victory over Daesh,” Staff Lieutenant General Abdulghani al-Assadi told AFP in Mosul, using an Arabic acronym for the ISIL Takfiri group.

Iraqi forces launched the grueling battle for Mosul on October 17, advancing to the city and retaking its eastern side before setting their sights on the smaller but more densely populated west.

Assadi estimated that there are between 200 and 300 ISIL insurgents left in the city, most of them foreigners.

ISIL overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by Popular Mobilization Forces, known as Hashd Shaabi, have since regained much of the territory they lost.

Source: AFP