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Yearender 2016: The year ISIS 'caliphate' buckled

Western powers, Turkey, Iran, Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish forces and militias have played a part in surge against IS in 2016

By :  naren pulloor
Update: 2016-12-23 09:39 GMT
The US-led coalition, which operates in both Syria and neighbouring Iraq, says it takes all possible measures to avoid civilian casualties. (Photo: Representational/File)
Almost three million people and more than 44,000 square kilometres of territory have been liberated from IS in 2016, US army general Steve Townsend said.
Kurdish Peshmerga forces look at a checkpoint held by Islamic State militants in Iraq's second city of Mosul.
In December 2016, Syrian army said it had retaken complete control of Aleppo after the last rebel fighters were evacuated from the city, handing President Bashar al-Assad his biggest victory of the war.
According to the Pentagon, at least 50,000 IS fighters have been killed since 2014, twice the number of fighters the coalition estimated the group had when the caliphate was proclaimed.
Despite the formidable arsenal IS seized from regular forces and the fear it instilled in the world with its campaign of well-publicised atrocities, the jihadist group stopped expanding and eventually buckled.
The fall of Sirte to pro-government forces was a significant setback for the Islamic State group in Libya.
In August 2016, US-backed fighters took 'almost complete control' of an ISIS stronghold in northern Syria that analysts said was the key to the advance to Raqqa, the group's de facto capital.
In October 2016, Turkish-backed rebels captured the emblematic northern Syrian town of Dabiq from the Islamic State group, dealing a major symbolic blow to the jihadists.
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Iraqi soldiers check a cemetery where jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group were buried in Fallujah.
Western powers, Turkey, Iran, Iraqi and Syrian Kurdish forces and militias have played a part in surge against IS in 2016

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