Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has announced victory against ISIS, saying that the land is “completely liberated” from the radical Islamic terrorist group.

Those comments set off a day of celebrations in the country, which has been fighting ISIS militants on its soil since 2014. The Iraqi government declared Sunday a national holiday.

Despite the fanfare, Canada’s military approach to Iraq hasn’t changed.

“Given the fluidity of the current situation, Canada's Special Operations Task Force's temporary suspension of the provision of assistance to various elements of Iraqi security forces will continue,” a DND spokesperson told CTV News in a statement.

“We continue to monitor the situation on the ground and are assessing the next phases of SOF activity.”

Some experts, meanwhile, say that it is premature to celebrate. Here are three reasons why.

Fighters have ‘melted into’ rural areas

Kamran Bokhari, a senior fellow with the Washington-based Center for Global Policy, tells CTV News Channel this may be “another case of hashtag mission accomplished” where people eventually realize “we should’ve kept the champagne on ice.”

“Yes the urban areas have been liberated, and they have managed to push ISIS out of the urban areas,” he says. “But it’s been pushed where? Into the rural sanctuary, where we’ve seen it grow back on multiple occasions.”

Alan Bell, president of Globe Risk International, says declaring victory may be “premature,” considering that many of ISIS’ combatants “have melted into the various villages along the border.”

Bell tells CTV News Channel he predicts “protracted terrorist attacks against all the infrastructure, the soldiers, the police, the people” of Iraq.

Bessma Momani, from the Centre for International Governance Innovation at the University of Waterloo, says that while she believes ISIS has given up on having a physical territory, it will remain a terrorist threat.

“I think we’re going to still see remnants of ISIS take that to the cities of Iraq, like Baghdad,” she says.

Foreign fighters fleeing to west

Bell says that Europe in particular will be threatened as some of the tens of thousands of foreign fighters head back to their countries of origin.

“Intelligence has already indicated that a significant number of the foreign fighters realized the end was coming and they decided to evacuate,” he says.

Bell adds that the “mass migration” into Europe over the past 18 months leaves that continent particularly threatened.

“North America will be held off a little bit as long as we keep our borders secure (and) we do our background checks on people coming from these high-risk areas around the world.”

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told CTV’s Question Period last month that there are between 180 and 190 ISIS fighters with a connection to Canada and around 60 foreign fighters who have already returned to Canada. As of last month, charges had been brought in only two cases since the Liberals came to power.

Rebuilding will be difficult

Momani says that with the war over, the rebuilding of Iraq must now begin.

“Three million Iraqis maintain internally displaced,” she said. “There are many, many cities that need to be rebuilt. The economy is struggling because of the great expenses involved,” she added.

Bokhari agrees. “It’s easy to push an enemy out,” he says. “The question is, can you hold the area … build it and develop it?”