Jordan to host meeting of anti-ISIL coalition this month

Meeting of foreign ministers will be first since extremist group's military defeat in Iraq and Syria

TOPSHOT - Iraqi forces dance on November 4, 2017 near the Syrian border after recapturing the border town of Qaim, west of Anbar, from the Islamic State (IS) group jihadists a day earlier.
Syrian and allied forces converged on holdout Islamic State group fighters in the Syrian border town of Albu Kamal, the jihadists' very last urban bastion following a string of losses. / AFP PHOTO / AHMAD AL-RUBAYE
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Jordan will host a meeting of leaders from members of the Global Coalition Against ISIL later this month, the foreign ministry said.

Representatives of 27 of the 69 countries in the coalition, as well as of the four international organisations taking part, will attend the meeting, ministry spokesman Mohammad Al Kayed told Jordan's Petra news agency.

The meeting is being held at an important stage in the battle against ISIL, Mr Al Kayed said, with the extremist group now driven out of almost all the areas it seized in Iraq and Syria since 2014.

The last two towns held by the militants - Al Qaim on the Iraqi side of the border with Syria and Albu Kamal on the Syrian side, were recaptured earlier this month.

Mr Al Kayed said the talks being hosted by Jordan would be a continuation of a meeting of foreign ministers of the coalition held in New York in September, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Defence ministers of the coalition met on Thursday at the Nato headquarters in Brussels. Nato formally joined the coalition in May although many of its member countries have been part of the coalition since it was formed in September 2104.

Besides defeating ISIL militarily, the coalition aims to dismantle the terror group's financing and propaganda networks and to ensure stability in areas retaken from the group by assisting in reconstruction and restoration of essential services.