Hawzah News Agency (Rawa, Iraq) - The Iraq army said it launched an assault on Friday on the small Euphrates valley town of Rawa, the last in the country still held by the Daesh group.

"Operations to liberate Rawa began at dawn", the Joint Operations Command said in a statement.

The launch of the attack as the Syrian army battled for a second day to retake the town of Albu Kamal just across the border.

An army general contacted by the source at the front predicted that the battle for Rawa would be swift as "the majority of Daesh fighters who were in the town have fled towards the Syrian border."