BEIRUT: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared the end of Islamic State on Tuesday while a senior military commander thanked the "thousands of martyrs" killed in operations organised by Iran to defeat the militant group in Syria and Iraq. "Today with Almighty Allah's guidance and the resistance of people in the region we can say that this evil has either been lifted from the head of the people or has been reduced," Rouhani said in an address broadcast live on state TV. "Of course the remnants will continue but the foundation and roots have been destroyed. "Major General Qassem Soleimani, a senior commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, also said Daesh (Islamic State) had been defeated, in a message sent on Tuesday to Iran´s supreme leader which was published on the Guards´ news site, Sepah News. Iranian media have often carried video and pictures of Soleimani, who commands the Quds Force, the branch of the Guards responsible for operations outside Iran, at frontline positions in battles against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The Revolutionary Guards, a powerful military force which also oversees an economic empire worth billions of dollars, has been fighting in support of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and the central government in Baghdad for several years. More than a thousand members of the Guards, including senior commanders, have been killed in Syria and Iraq. The Syrian conflict has entered a new phase with the capture at the weekend by government forces and their allies of Albu Kamal, the last significant town in Syria held by Daesh, where Soleimani was pictured by Iranian media last week. Iraqi forces captured the border town of Rawa, the last remaining town there under Islamic State control, on Friday, signalling the collapse of the so-called caliphate it proclaimed in 2014 across vast swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory.
