BAGHDAD (AP) – A triumphant Iraqi prime minister on Tuesday toured the western city of Ramadi, just a day after government troops routed Islamic State militants from the area and recaptured a key government complex. Abadi also said “if 2015 was the year of liberation by God willing 2015 would be the year of the final victory and the year of ending the presence of Daaesh (IS in Arabic) on the land of Iraq”.
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“Five hundred members of the tribes from the Hashed arrived in northern Ramadi to participate in operations there and hold the liberated areas”, said Major General Ismail Mahalawi, who heads Anbar operations command.
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Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced he was visiting the “liberated” city on his official Twitter account, but did not provide more details.
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“The fight for Ramadi demonstrates how capable, motivated local forces backed by coalition air support and training can defeat ISIL”, said U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, using a common acronym for Islamic State. Jihadist fighters abandoned their last stronghold in Ramadi on Monday.
Abadi’s Shi’ite-led government has said for months it would prove the rebuilt capability of the army by reversing militant gains in Anbar, a mainly Sunni, largely desert province stretching from Baghdad’s outskirts to the borders of Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
“The real challenge now will be how to enable residents to return to the city while preventing Islamic State from reinfiltrating sleeper cells who could launch attacks either against security forces or against local tribes they consider to be pro-government”, said Nathaniel Rabkin, managing editor of risk assessment newsletter Inside Iraqi Politics.
But officials were hesitant to declare the symbolic move an outright victory over ISIS in Ramadi.
Authorities have not provided casualty figures from the fighting for Ramadi. Most significantly, American and Iraqi officers excluded Iran-allied Shiite militias from the battle for Ramadi to avoid aggravating sectarian and ethnic tensions.
Even before IS rolled in, Ramadi bore scars from the eight-year USA intervention in Iraq.
“By controlling the complex this means that they have been defeated in Ramadi”, Sabah al-Numani, a spokesman for the force leading the fight on the government side, was quoted by Reuters as saying on December 27.
It is 400 km (250 miles) north of Baghdad and it has been selected by the government as the next target for Iraq’s armed forces after they won back the western city of Ramadi. The battle for Mosul, however, is expected to be much more challenging due to its significantly larger size and also its having a large, well entrenched IS force.
Eid Ammash, a spokesman for the Anbar provincial council, said in a telephone interview that troops had been careful about entering the government complex in Ramadi to minimize losses, and a police commander, Mazin al-Dulaimi, said forces had to make sure suicide bombers and snipers were no longer inside.
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Middle East press reaction to the retaking of Ramadi ranges from hope that this development marks a turning point in the struggle against IS to reminders that the group has yet to be dislodged from other parts of the country.
