Iraq PM says Tal Afar 'fully liberated' from ISIS

Iraq's prime minister on Thursday declared the town of Tal Afar "fully liberated" from the Islamic State group after a nearly two-week operation, the latest blow to the extremist group which ran nearly a third of the country three years ago.

Iraqi troops "eliminated and smashed Daesh terrorists" in al-Ayadia district, about 10 kilometres northwest of Tal Afar, where the militants fled last week, Haider al-Abadi said in a statement. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

With Tal Afar liberated, all of Nineveh province the first area IS militants captured in a 2014 blitz "is in the hands of our brave troops," al-Abadi said.

"To Daesh criminals we say: Wherever you are we will come to liberate and you have to choose only death or surrender," he said.

Iraqi officials often declare areas liberated before the fighting has completely ended, and the militants have been known to carry out surprise counterattacks.

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U.S.-backed Iraqis troops launched the operation to retake Tal Afar early last week, a month after it declared the northern city of Mosul, its second largest, to be fully liberated. Tal Afar is about 150 kilometres from Syria's border and it was among the last IS-held towns in Iraq.

Iraqi forces have driven IS from most of Iraq's major towns and cities seized by the militants in the summer of 2014, including Mosul, which was retaken after a grueling nine-month campaign.

Hawjja, other towns still under IS control

Iraqi officials often declare areas liberated before the fighting has completely ended, and the militants have been known to carry out surprise counterattacks. IS still controls the northern town of Hawija as well as the towns of Qaim, Rawa and Ana in western Iraq near Syria.

Still, Iraqi state TV immediately cut its regular programs and aired national songs and a live feed from the area where soldiers celebrating the victory as dancing and brandishing their weapons in jubilantly. The feed also showed traffic boards leading to the city center of al-Ayadia where military vehicles were coming out and in.

Al-Abadi also alluded to a much-criticized deal brokered by Lebanon's Hezbollah with IS fighters to clear them from an area along the Lebanon-Syria border. He noted that his troops didn't allow IS militants to flee al-Ayadia, saying "that's our firm stance against those criminals who pose a threat to all people in the region and world wherever they are."

On Tuesday, al-Abadi had criticized the deal, which allowed hundreds of militants to leave to an IS-controlled area near the Iraqi border, and describing it as "worrying and an insult to the Iraqi people."

Shortly after al-Abadi's statement, the U.S.-led coalition hailed what it described as a "stunning victory." The coalition warned that "dangerous work remains to completely remove explosive devices, identify ISIS fighters in hiding and eliminate any remaining ISIS holdouts."

Iraqi forces have driven IS from most of Iraq's major towns and cities seized by the militants in the summer of 2014, including Mosul, which was retaken after a grueling nine-month campaign.