The United States hailed the end of the Islamic State group's vile occupation of Iraq today after the Baghdad government declared victory in a three-year war. <br/><br/>State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said that the Iraqi announcement signals the last remnants of ISIS's self-proclaimed 'caliphate' in Iraq have been erased and the people living in those areas have been freed from ISIS's brutal control.<br/><br/>IS seized vast areas north and west of Baghdad in a lightning offensive in 2014, and at its height endangered Iraq's very existence.