Islamic State’s caliphate is doomed, as is its philosophy

After months of bloody fighting, the Iraqi Government has declared that Islamic State’s self-styled caliphate is at an end.

With the global war against IS and radical Islam continuing, the statement is largely symbolic, but nevertheless an important moment that deserves wide recognition.

Iraqi authorities said last week that government troops had fought their way into the heart of Mosul, the de facto capital of IS, and that the remaining insurgents would be defeated soon.

Islamic State seized the city almost three years ago, sending shudders through the region and raising real concerns that Iraq as a nation might fracture.

The radical organisation’s stunning success inspired radicals from all over the world — including Australia — to head to Iraq and Syria to be part of a promised new Islamic empire.

Those who could not travel were instructed to carry out acts of terror in other countries, leading to a seemingly never-ending series of atrocities in cities around the world.

About 100 Australians are still believed to be fighting with IS in Syria and Iraq, while several hundred people have been stopped at airports in the suspected act of attempting to join the caliphate.

When in Australia last month, US Secretary of Defence James Mattis vowed there would be no escape for those foreign fighters, including Australians, who had joined IS, saying they would be “annihilated” on the battlefield to prevent them returning to their home countries to carry on the fight.

It should be remembered Australia has played no small part in rolling back IS.

We were one of the first nations to commit military forces to the battle in the form of an air force strike group, special forces and a contingent of Diggers to train local Iraqi troops.

The collapse of IS in Iraq and Syria does not mean the conflict will not spread to other parts of the world. Recently we have seen fighters in the Philippines launch an offensive in the name of IS, though that, too, is failing in the face of a military campaign supported by Australia.

And Australia recently promised more specialist soldiers for Afghanistan amid concerns IS was gaining a foothold there.

We need to be on guard against attacks in our cities as IS sympathisers lash out in desperate final acts of hate and vengeance.

The retaking of Mosul should send a message to would-be followers in Australia and around the world that Islamic State is collapsing and that its philosophy of intolerance and violence is doomed.