United States hailed the end of the terror group Islamic State's vile occupation of Iraq 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 IS's self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq have been erased and the people living in those areas have been freed from IS'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.