Iraq PM declares victory over Isis in 'librerated' Mosul

Iraq's Prime Minister has declared victory over Islamic State in Mosul.

Haider al-Abadi arrived in the liberated city, in northern Iraq, on Sunday afternoon before congratulating the troops and people.

A statement from his office read: "The commander in chief of the armed forces (Prime Minister) Haider al-Abadi arrived in the liberated city of Mosul and congratulated the heroic fighters and the Iraqi people for the great victory."

It came as Iraqi troops celebrated driving Isis fighters from some of their last strongholds in Mosul on Sunday, having battled against the terror group since October.

Heavy fighting continued just a few blocks away.

Lt Gen Jassim Nizal of the army's 9th Division said his forces have achieved "victory" in their sector, after a similar announcement by the Federal Police.

His soldiers danced to patriotic music atop tanks even as airstrikes sent plumes of smoke into the air nearby.

Defence secretary Michael Fallon congratulated the Iraqi premier and the country's forces who had been fighting "with great bravery and care against a brutal opponent".

Sir Michael said: "Daesh (IS) has total disregard for innocent civilian life and we should welcome their defeat in a city that was ground zero for their so-called caliphate.

"Britain has played a leading role in the coalition that has helped bring about the removal of the death cult from Mosul."

Isis now controls under a square kilometre of territory in Mosul's Old City, but is using human shields, suicide bombers and snipers in a fight to the death.

The militants captured Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, in a matter of days in the summer of 2014.

Nizal acknowledged that many of his men were among those who fled the city at that time in a humiliating defeat for the country's armed forces.

A line of tired civilians filed out of the Old City on foot, past the carcasses of destroyed apartment blocks lining the cratered roads.

Heba Walid held her sister-in-law's baby, which was born into war.

The parents of the six-month-old, along with 15 other family members, were killed last month when an airstrike hit their home.

When Walid ran out of formula, she fed the baby a paste of crushed biscuits mixed with water.

Now they are among more than 897,000 people displaced by the fighting in Mosul.

The loss of the city would mark a major defeat for the Islamic State group, which has suffered a series of major setbacks over the past year.

US-backed Syrian forces have pushed into the group's de facto capital, the northern Syrian city of Raqqa, but a final victory there could be months away, and the extremists still hold several smaller towns and villages across Iraq and Syria.