Remembering Victory: Iraq’s Defeat of Daesh and its Lasting Consequences

On December 9, 2017, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared that Iraq had achieved final victory over the Islamic State (Daesh), after a brutal three-year campaign that saw the extremist group seize and then lose vast swathes of Iraqi territory. That declaration marked the end of Daesh’s claim to govern a large territorial “caliphate” inside Iraq, but it also closed a dramatic chapter that reshaped Iraqi politics, security, society, and regional alignments.

1. Timeline: rise, expansion, and defeat

Daesh’s rapid rise in Iraq began in earnest in 2014. The group captured Mosul — Iraq’s second largest city — in a swift offensive that culminated on June 10, 2014, exposing the collapse of Iraqi defenses in several provinces and providing Daesh a strategic base for further expansion across Nineveh, Salah al-Din, and Anbar. The fall of Mosul had immediate symbolic and practical consequences: it freed fighters, captured weapons, and prompted mass civilian flight from the city.

A decisive turning point came three days later, when Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a religious call on June 13, 2014 for a defensive (kifāʾī) jihad to repel the extremists — a mobilizing order that prompted tens of thousands of volunteers and paved the way for the institutionalization of volunteer militias under state supervision. That religious legitimation helped convert grassroots energy into coordinated paramilitary structures.

From 2014 through 2017 the fight unfolded in waves: the recapture of Tikrit (2015), the bitter campaigns in Ramadi (2015) and Fallujah (2016), and the grinding, urban battle for Mosul (2016–2017). By 2017 operations extended to Tal Afar, Al-Qaim and Rawa; by December of that year Iraqi forces announced that Daesh had been driven from its last major footholds.

2. The actors: Iraqi state forces and the Axis of Resistance

Iraq’s formal military institutions — the Iraqi Army, the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), and Federal Police — bore the central responsibility for retaking urban centers and conducting clearance operations. Parallel to them, however, the Popular Mobilization Forces (al-Hashd al-Shaʿbi, PMF) emerged from volunteers and local militias into a decisive force on the ground. PMF formations, many organized around preexisting groups, played leading roles in operations across central and northern Iraq.

A crucial leadership figure within the PMF was Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who served as a senior PMF commander and helped coordinate militia efforts during the anti-Daesh campaigns. His role exemplified how veteran militia leaders shaped battlefield tactics, logistics, and local governance in liberated areas. The PMF’s cooperation with Iran’s IRGC advisors and with allied groups — including operational coordination informed by figures such as Qassem Soleimani — enhanced capabilities in intelligence, planning, and close-quarters operations.

3. The human and material cost

The fight against Daesh exacted a heavy toll. Millions of Iraqis were displaced at different periods of the conflict; humanitarian planning documents estimated that by 2017 up to 4.2 million internally displaced people might require assistance as military operations, sieges, and sectarian cleavages produced mass movement. Entire neighborhoods in Mosul, Ramadi and Fallujah were left in ruins, producing long-term reconstruction needs.

Civilian casualty figures remain contested and politically fraught, but independent monitoring and rights groups documented significant civilian deaths during coalition air campaigns and intense urban fighting; these losses deepened social trauma and complicated reconciliation and return efforts. (Different tallies exist; the scale of destruction and civilian suffering is undisputed.)

4. Regional and international context

The anti-Daesh campaign unfolded within a complex international environment. The U.S.

-led coalition provided airpower, training and support to Iraqi government forces and Kurdish units, yet the coalition’s operations were criticized for civilian harm and for at times failing to coordinate effectively with local ground actors. Meanwhile, actors associated with the Axis of Resistance — notably Iran and allied militias — framed the fight as part of a broader confrontation with U.S. and Israeli influence in the region, and they leveraged their battlefield presence to deepen ties with Baghdad.

Daesh’s defeat had the political effect of pushing Baghdad and Tehran into closer security cooperation. Iran’s advisory and material support, and the battlefield prominence of Iran-aligned militias, gave Tehran enhanced leverage in Iraqi affairs and altered the post-2017 balance of regional influence.

5. Post-victory challenges

Military victory did not mean the end of insecurity. Daesh transformed from a proto-state into an underground insurgency: sleeper cells and small-unit attacks persisted in Diyala, Kirkuk and desert border regions. Reconstruction proved daunting: housing, utilities, heritage sites, and entire urban infrastructures required massive investment. Political tensions also mounted over the PMF’s legal status, integration into the state, and accountability for abuses — issues that remain central to Iraq’s domestic politics. Lastly, the continued presence of U.S. troops and negotiations over force posture kept Iraq at the intersection of competing foreign agendas.

6. How Iraq commemorates the victory

Anniversaries of the 2017 declaration are marked by official ceremonies, tributes to martyrs, and public remembrance of those who fought and died. The PMF and its constituent formations are publicly commemorated in many parts of the country, and narratives about resistance and liberation shape local memory. At the same time, competing media frames — Western, Gulf, and regional — debate the PMF’s role, with some outlets downplaying militia contributions and others emphasizing their centrality; these contestations echo larger arguments over sovereignty, justice, and Iraq’s political future.

7. Reflection: sovereignty, alignment, and the balance of power

The victory over Daesh reshaped Iraq in three connected ways. First, it restored Iraq’s territorial integrity in practical terms — it removed the immediate territorial threat posed by Daesh — yet it left open questions about the monopoly of force and the relationship between state institutions and armed non-state actors. Second, the war accelerated Baghdad’s alignment with Tehran in security and political spheres, producing new dependencies and domestic tensions over foreign influence. Third, the struggle against Daesh transformed the regional balance by demonstrating that state and non-state actors operating in tandem could expel a major extremist threat — but also that doing so can complicate postwar governance, accountability, and reconstruction.

The anniversary of the victory should therefore be a moment for sober remembrance: to honor the sacrifices made, to measure the unresolved costs, and to press for policies that convert military success into durable security, inclusive governance, and genuine reconstruction — lest the conditions that gave rise to Daesh return in another guise.