The Islamic State group has lost almost half of land it once controlled in Iraq, the Pentagon has said, as pro-government forces continued to power through territories on the ground. Militants within the Iraqi borders lost control of nearly half of terrain, despite earlier estimates suggesting that 40 percent had been recaptured by US-backed Iraqi forces. "The number right now in Iraq is about 45 percent of the territory they once held has been recovered," Pentagon spokesman

A wave of bomb blasts has caused yet more blood to spill in the streets of Baghdad this week, but officials are adamant that Islamic State group militants have lost significant ground in Iraq, saying the group now only controls 14 percent of territory in the country. "We declare that Daesh's presence has receded in the cities and provinces of Iraq," said the government's spokesman, Saad al-Hadithi, using the Arabic acronym for IS. "They were occupying 40 percent of Iraq's ter