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Isis has lost more than three-quarters of the territory it seized when it swept across Iraq in the summer of 2014 leaving in control of just seven per cent of the countrythe Iraqi military has said.

BrigGenYahya Rasool, a military spokesman, said the extremist group currently controls less than 12,000 square miles (30,000 square kilometres) in Iraq, or 6.8 per cent of the countrys territory. That is down from more than 40 per cent at its height.

The extremist group has also lost ground in Syria, and is currently fighting US-backed forces near Raqqa, the de facto capital of its self-styled Caliphate.

Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes have gradually pushed the jihadis out of a string of towns and cities over the past two years, and are currently battling the group in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. Iraq declared eastern Mosul fully liberated in January, and BrigGenRasool said Iraqi forces have retaken more than half of the more densely populated western side.

Our troops are very cautious in their advance, BrigGenRasool said in Baghdad. The biggest challenge they face is the civilians.ColJohn Dorrian, a USspokesman for the coalition, said the fight for western Mosul has been difficult.

The enemys tactics are not only hiding among the civilian population but also actively pulling civilians into harm's way, surrounding their snipers with civilians, loading buildings that they are firing from with civilians and publicly executing civilians who are trying escape the danger, he said.

Victory against Isis has come at a staggering cost, with some towns and neighbourhoods reduced to rubble by airstrikes and shelling. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been displaced, and many have been unable to return even after the fighting because of demolished infrastructure and the lingering threat of attacks.

The push against the jihadis in Western Mosul is bogged down with Iraqi security forces fighting in a warren of small streets in the old part of the city.

The federal police said in a statement on Tuesday they have been reinforcing their positions in Western Mosul in preparation for a push on the al-Nuri Mosque where Isis leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared the Caliphatein 2014.

ColDorrian said the fight in Western Mosul had been tough but said Islamic State fighters had no escape.

Do not lose sight of the fact that even though the fighting is going to be very hard, this enemy is completely surrounded, he said. They aren't going anywhere.

Agencies

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Isis now in control of just 7 per cent of country, says Iraq - The Independent

With the fall of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) seemingly imminent, nearly every Iraqi political group and its associated militia have been rushing to take control of the newly liberated territories in the governorates of Anbar, Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Salahadin. Those that have been the most successful are the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), an umbrella of over three dozen mostly Shiite armed groups formed in 2014 to fight ISIS, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), one of the two main Kurdish political parties in Iraq. (The Iraqi government, meanwhile, has been notably slow in reclaiming its own land.)

Some of the land that is up for grabs is rich in oil, and control over more territory would mean gaining more political leverage in Baghdad. What is more, the five governorates, in which the territories are located, were disputed even before the ISIS takeover in 2014. Both the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq and the central government in Baghdad claimed sovereignty. But ISIS takeover has essentially reset the political and military landscape in these areas, allowing these political and military forces to put down new roots.

In seeking to govern and secure areas that are either predominantly Sunni, Kurdish, or a mix, Shiite and Kurdish groups have had to resort to crossing both ethnic and sectarian lines to win the support of locals and recruit soldiers into their military forces. For their parts, the PMU and KDP have tried to recruit Sunni Arabs, who constitute roughly 25 percent of the countrys total population and live in those nearly liberated territories. They have been left with little to no representation, political power, or security because even before ISIS, strong Sunni leaders had been pushed out from the central governments decision-making and weak leaders had lost credibility with the local population.

The two groups are also recruiting Kurds living in the towns of northern Diyala (Jalaula, Khanaqin, and Mandali) and northern Salahadin (Tuz Khurmatu). Some of the districts are controlled

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Land Grabs in Iraq - Foreign Affairs (subscription)

Rep. Tulsi GabbardTulsi GabbardDems want Trumps Syria strategy White House: Russia trying to 'cover up' gas attack Gabbard: We need to learn from Iraq MORE (D-Hawaii) has a message for the liberals attacking her criticism of President Trumps missile strike on Syria, warning that a rush to aggression risks repeating the same mistakes that led the United States into the Iraq War.

We need to learn from Iraq and Libya wars that were propagated as necessary to relieve human suffering, but actually increased human suffering many times over, she said in an email to The Hill.

Gabbard, a major in the Hawaii Army National Guard who served two tours in Iraq, has been highly critical of Trumps decision last Thursday to launch 59 missiles at a Syrian airfield in response to a deadly chemical attack that killed scores of civilians, including children, in a western Syrian town days before.

Gabbards position particularly her skepticism that the Syrian government was behind the chemical attacks has led to an outcry from some establishment Democrats, including former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, who want her out of Congress.

A meeting between Gabbard and Assad in January has only heightened the critics belief that shes acting as an apologist for a tyrannical leader known to employ brutal tactics, even against his own people, to keep a grip on power in the country's yearslong civil war.

But Gabbard, who sits on both the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees, maintains those critics are ignoring the lessons of recent history that have left the United States mired in costly Middle Eastern conflicts for more than a decade.

"I and thousands of my brothers- and sisters-in-arms went to war in Iraq based on false intelligence and lies from our leaders our president, military and political leaders. We should have been skeptical then, and we werent, she said. The cost was thousands of American lives and trillions of dollars down the drain. What to speak of millions of non-American lives.

Echoing the position of other liberal Democrats, Gabbard says the administration is conducting an unconstitutional war because Trump didnt come to Congress before launching the strike. Going a step further, shes also questioning the veracity of Trumps claim that Assad is responsible for the chemical attacks.

"There is a reason our Constitution gives Congress the power to declare war: we should be shown the evidence and given the opportunity to debate the strategy and sacrifice expected, she said.

No leader of either party, pro or against military intervention should let our President take us down the path to another regime change war without that debate."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who praised the U.S. strike, is urging GOP leaders to cut short Congresss two-week April recess to bring the House back into session to stage such a debate.

Speaker Paul RyanPaul RyanTrump: 'I don't like the term "border adjustment"' GOP infighting imperils agenda GOP wrestles with big question: What now? MORE (Wis.) has rebuffed that request, though the Republican leader is also calling on Trump to confer with Congress about a future course in Syria.

It is now appropriate for the administration to consult with Congress as it considers next steps to resolve the long-running crisis in Syria, Ryan's officesaid Friday.

The House is scheduled to reconvene on April 25.

--This report was updated at 2:01 p.m.

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Gabbard: 'We need to learn from Iraq' - The Hill

April 12, 2017 09:00 ET | Source: Ziyen Inc.

BAGHDAD, Iraq, April 12, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ziyen Inc., who was qualified by the SEC under Regulation A+, have opened a new investment division in the company to focus on financing unfunded construction projects in Iraq.

Ziyen Inc. will be the worlds first Construction Intelligence company, where we will be utilizing the data, information and intelligence from our software with the capabilities to provide the finance for long-term projects.

Alastair Caithness CEO said, "The biggest fear for countries in the West is how to handle mass immigration. The cost of war has created over 250,000 International Iraqi refugees outside the Middle East, 2 million refugees in neighboring countries with a further 4 million displaced in Iraq. Therefore, the problem is only going to get worse rather than better unless we start to address the root cause.

The current horrific conditions have meant 70% of Iraqi people lack access to clean water, 80% lack proper sanitation leading to cholera epidemics and unemployment is over 50% for those under 30 years old. Power supplies from the national grid often dont exceed five hours per day.

We want to help the Iraqi people to rebuild their country. By building houses, factories and developing infrastructure, there will be an opportunity to create jobs, give people hope and help stop the mass immigration issues.

The US, European and International communities have the capabilities to do this, and if Ziyen Inc. can finance projects and bring media attention through our news outlets to focus on positives in the country, then we can help to start to rebuild a country which once had a thriving economy."

For more information about the company and investment opportunities visithttp://www.ziyen.com

Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements related to anticipated commencement of commercial production, targeted pricing and performance goals, and statements that otherwise relate to future periods are forward-looking statements. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, which are described in more detail in the Companys periodic reports filed with the SEC, specifically the most recent reports which identify important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made and based on information available to the Company on the date of this press release. Ziyen Inc. assumes no obligation to update the information in this press release.

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Ziyen Inc. ready to invest in Iraq - GlobeNewswire (press release)

It's the first time an official has estimated the total number of Yazidis found in grave sites littered around Sinjar since Iraqi forces pushed the terror group out more than two years ago.

Thirty-five mass graves along with 100 individual graves have been unearthed, according to Hussein Hassoun, the spokesman of the Higher Committee to Introduce Yazidi Kurds.

"The mass graves are about 5 to 10 kilometers apart," Hassoun told CNN. Between 300 and 500 bodies were found in the past few months.

A new mass grave was recently found in the Hardan area of Sinjar, the town's mayor told Rudaw news agency.

Most of the bodies have been left in their graves, so officials can only give an estimate of the total number of dead discovered thus far. Due to limited resources, only 65 bodies have been exhumed, Fouad Othman, the spokesman of the Martyrs Ministry in Kurdistan, told CNN.

ISIS was driven out of Sinjar in 2015, and Kurdish officials believe more mass graves will be found as more territory is seized from the terror group.

A US-led coalition has mounted an aggressive campaign to recapture ISIS-held territory in recent months. ISIS currently controls less than 7% of Iraqi territory, Iraq's military says -- down from nearly 40% of the country in 2014.

Hassoun said intelligence reports indicate that there could be up to 12 mass graves in the village of Kocho, which remains under ISIS control.

The village is among two identified by the UN report as sites of large mass killings, which the report defines as more than 20 men and boys killed at the same time.

Hassoun told CNN that his committee lacked the funds to conduct DNA tests needed to match the dead with family members looking for their loved ones' remains.

He said more international support would be needed to determine the true scale of ISIS' atrocities against Yazidis.

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Official: 1,500 Yazidi bodies found since 2015 - CNN.com - CNN