AKIPRESS.COM - The senior US commander in Iraq has warned that the war against the so-called Islamic State (IS) is not over, despite a "historic" victory in Mosul, BBC reported.

Lt Gen Stephen Townsend told the BBC there were still IS fighters in Iraq.

He said the government should now reach out to Iraq's Sunnis to stop the jihadist group from renewing itself.

"If we're to keep... ISIS 2.0 from emerging, the Iraqi government is going to have to do something pretty significantly different," he said.

"They're going to have to reach out and reconcile with the Sunni population, and make them feel like their government in Baghdad represents them."

Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has formally declared victory over IS in Mosul, after a nearly nine-month battle that left large areas in ruins, killed thousands of civilians and displaced more than 920,000 others.

Commanders from the US-led coalition that has provided air and ground support to Iraqi forces said the urban combat had been most intense since World War Two.

Mr Abadi made the declaration of victory at the operations room of the Counter-Terrorism Service, whose elite forces were the first to enter Mosul in November.

Using a pejorative term for IS based on an Arabic acronym of its former name, he said: "I announce from here the end and the failure and the collapse of the terrorist state of falsehood and terrorism, which the terrorist Daesh announced from Mosul."

US President Donald Trump sent his congratulations to his Iraqi counterpart, saying Mosul had been "liberated from its long nightmare under the rule of ISIS".