France's President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday that Iraq would announce its total "liberation" from the grip of the Islamic State jihadist group by the end of December.

He made the prediction at a joint news conference with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani while on an official visit to Doha.

"There will be a liberation before the end of the year and we will, in the next months I hope, achieve a military victory in the Iraqi-Syrian zone," he told reporters.

He made his comments after visiting the huge US air base of Al-Udeid in Qatar where he met a small French contingent and spoke to US military command.

Al-Udeid, the largest US air base in the region, plays a key role in America's fight against the Islamic State group and it is from where the air campaign against jihadists has been directed.

IS jihadists have suffered a series of major military defeats in Syria and Iraq this year.

On Thursday, Russia's defence ministry said its air campaign to defeat IS in Syria had been "accomplished" and that the country was "completely liberated" from the group.

The Islamic State group in Iraq, Syria: key dates
Beirut (AFP) Dec 7, 2017 - Russia's defence ministry said Thursday that Syria has been "completely liberated" from the Islamic State group, in what would be the latest major setback for the jihadists.

However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said IS still holds around eight percent of eastern Syria's Deir Ezzor province.

IS also has a presence in eastern parts of the central provinces of Homs and Hama, and in the Yarmuk Palestinian camp on the outskirts of Damascus, it said.

Here is a look at the group's emergence, its swift advances and subsequent defeats.

- ISIL created -

- April 2013: Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), announces in an online recording the creation of a group called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

In early 2014, Al-Qaeda disavows ISIL completely.

- Key cities fall -

- January 2014: ISIL conquers Syria's northern city of Raqa after fierce fighting with rival jihadists. It is the first provincial capital to fall from regime control and becomes the jihadists' main stronghold.

In June, they launch a rampage across northwestern Iraq, seizing second city Mosul and a belt of territory bordering the autonomous Kurdistan region.

- 'Caliphate' proclaimed -

- June 2014: ISIL declares a "caliphate" in territories it has seized in Iraq and Syria. It rebrands itself the Islamic State (IS) and declares its chief Baghdadi "caliph" and "leader of Muslims everywhere".

A week later, Baghdadi appears for the first time in a video posted on jihadist sites and calls on all Muslims to obey him.

- Coalition formed -

- August 2014: US warplanes strike IS positions in northern Iraq in response to an appeal from the Iraqi government. It is Washington's first direct military engagement in the country since it withdrew its troops in 2011.

In September, an international coalition is formed to defeat the emboldened jihadist group. The US and Arab allies launch air strikes on IS positions in Syria.

- IS losses in Iraq -

- March 2015: Iraq announces the "liberation" of Tikrit, north of Baghdad. IS had controlled Tikrit for nearly 10 months. The operation involves Iran, through Shiite militias, and Washington, which heads the anti-jihadist coalition.

- February 2016: Iraqi forces capture Ramadi, overrun by jihadists the previous May. In June, they retake Fallujah, which was out of their control for two-and-a-half years.

- July 2017: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announces the "liberation" of Mosul, the last urban stronghold of IS in Iraq, after a nearly nine-month offensive led by a 30,000-strong federal force backed by coalition air strikes.

- August, 2017: The last major IS urban stronghold in northern Iraq, Tal Afar, is declared "liberated".

- October 2017: Abadi announces the recapture of Hawija, one of the few remaining IS holdouts.

- November 2017: Iraqi forces reclaim Al-Qaim, the main town in the group's last bastion in the country along the border with Syria, as well as Rawa.

Later in the month, they launch their final military operation against the IS in a vast desert region of western Iraq.

- IS defeats in Syria -

- January 2015: IS is driven from the Syrian border town of Kobane after more than four months of fighting led by Kurdish forces backed by coalition air strikes.

- August 2016: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition of Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by US air strikes recaptures the northern town of Manbij.

Turkish troops and Syrian rebels retake the border town of Jarabulus.

- February 2017: The Turkish army announces it has taken full control of Al-Bab, the IS last bastion in Aleppo province.

- March 2017: Syrian troops backed by Russian jets complete the recapture of the historic city of Palmyra.

- October 2017: The SDF announces the full recapture of Raqa after more than four months of fighting.

- November 2017: Syria's army seizes Deir Ezzor and part of its province, driving the jihadists from the last major city where they had a presence.

- December 7, 2017: Russia's defence ministry says its mission to oust the IS from Syria had been "accomplished" with the country "completely liberated" from the group.

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Rights group criticises Iraq over jihadist suspects
Baghdad (AFP) Dec 5, 2017
Human Rights Watch in a report on Tuesday criticised Iraq and the autonomous Kurdish authorities over mass trials of suspected Islamic State group jihadists. In "Flawed Justice: Accountability for ISIS Crimes in Iraq", HRW said Baghdad and the Kurdish authorities in the north were holding "thousands of trials of Islamic State suspects without a strategy to prioritise the worst abuses under I ... read more

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