US to stay in Iraq after defeating IS

The United States and several coalition countries want to maintain a military footprint in Iraq after the eventual defeat of the Islamic State group, a top US general said Tuesday.

Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend said the Iraqi government had expressed an interest in having US and coalition troops stay in the country.

"Our government is equally interested in that, as are several coalition governments (who) have expressed an interest in joining in that effort," Townsend said in a video call from Baghdad.

Townsend, who heads the anti-IS coalition, added that discussions were in the final decision-making stages.

"I would anticipate that there will be a coalition presence here after the defeat of ISIS," he said.

Meanwhile, Iraqi forces clashed with Islamic State militants holding out in Mosul's Old City yesterday, more than 36 hours after Baghdad declared victory over the jihadists in what they had declared the de facto Iraqi capital of their "caliphate".

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's victory announcement signalled the biggest defeat for the hardline Sunni group since its lightning sweep through northern Iraq three years ago. But pockets of Mosul remain insecure and the city has been heavily damaged by nearly nine months of gruelling urban combat.

About 900,000 people fled the fighting, with more than a third sheltered in camps outside Iraq's second largest city and the rest living with family and friends in other neighbourhoods.