The UK's Defence Secretary says he expects Islamic State to have been driven out of urban Iraq by the end of the year.

Sir Michael Fallon, on a visit to Baghdad, said IS would be expelled from Mosul, the towns around it and the Euphrates valley in 2017.

He said part of the success was down to the 300 airstrikes that RAF fighter jets had carried out on targets in and around Mosul.

Another aid to the coalition forces had been British military training given to 40,000 Iraqi troops and 7,000 Kurdish Peshmerga, he said.

Iraqi special forces have already cleared IS fighters from the part of Mosul east of the Euphrates and are about to battle to retake its western half.


Using the Arabic word for Islamic State, Sir Michael said: "In Iraq we expect to see Daesh expelled from the major towns and cities of Iraq during the course of this year.

"There are remnants of Daesh in the Euphrates river valley and north and west of Mosul itself, but we hope that Iraq can be cleared of Daesh during this year."

"I am delighted to see east Mosul now liberated and people returning to that city and the operation to liberate west Mosul about to begin.

Image: Sir Michael Fallon talks to reporters in Baghdad, Iraq

"And I congratulate the Iraqi forces and the Peshmerga on the role they have played in allowing the people of Mosul back to their homes to live in freedom again.

"The work now of stabilisation follows liberation and it will be important for all parties in Nineveh province to work together now to ensure that basic services are restored after the liberation of the rest of Mosul and that people in that city can once again live in peace and in freedom."

He also said he hoped the final stage to liberate Raqqa would begin in the spring.

"I've discussed with the coalition commanders progress over in Syria - a more complicated situation, given the continuation of the civil war there - but the Syrian Democratic Forces are now moving towards Raqqa and preparing to isolate the city from the north and from the west," he added.

"I hope that isolation will be completed by the spring and then operations to liberate Raqqa itself can begin thereafter."

Sir Michael previously said that two million people were freed from IS rule in 2016.

Estimates suggest that about 25,000 IS fighters were killed over the course of the year, and the group is now in control of less than 10% of Iraqi territory.