"The IS [Daesh, outlawed in Russia] no longer has a single district in Mosul. The militants have no choice but to surrender. The IS presence in Iraq has ended forever," the ministry said as quoted by Sky News Arabia.
For more than eight months, the northern city of Mosul served as the de facto capital of Daesh in Iraq.
Following the seizing of the mosque, Iraqi state TV broadcasted a message announcing the "fall of the mythical state," referring to Daesh.
"Their mythical state has fallen," Brigadier General Yahya Rasool, an Iraqi military spokesman, told state TV.
The Daesh terror group took over Mosul in June 2014, and the operation aimed at liberating the city from terrorists started in October 2016. The eastern part of the city was liberated by Iraqi and US-led coalition forces in late January. A month later, the Iraqi forces began the operation aimed at liberating western Mosul from Daesh.
The US-led coalition of 69 members is conducting airstrikes, ground-based and rocket-propelled artillery fire against the Daesh in Syria and Iraq. Unlike the coalition illegitimate status of operation in Syria, the strikes in Iraq are conducted in support of the Iraqi government.
