US-backed Iraqi forces will be able to retake cities under Daesh control this year, Iraq's ambassador to the US said.
"We are confident that this year will be the determinant year," Ambassador Lukman Faily told USA TODAY.
Deash control of major towns such as Mosul, the country's second-largest city, "is something we can no longer tolerate," Faily said. The militants commit atrocities against Iraqi citizens every day, he said.
Forcing the militants out of isolated desert hideaways throughout the country may take longer, he said.
Daesh seized large swaths of Iraq last year. Since then, US airstrikes in conjunction with Iraqi ground forces have blunted the militant group's expansion, and troops have retaken territory.