In a speech broadcast on state television, Mr Abadi said: “2016 will be the year of the big and final victory, when Daesh’s presence in Iraq will be terminated”, using an alternative name for the Islamic State (IS) group. State TV has repeatedly shown footage of soldiers waving Iraqi flags and brandishing machine guns, chanting and dancing inside the government complex in central Ramadi.
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Ramadi, about 80 miles west of Baghdad, and nearby Fallujah, which lies halfway on the road to Baghdad and remains under ISIL control, saw some of the heaviest fighting of the eight-year US intervention in Iraq.
As elite forces gradually move out of Ramadi to prepare for battles elsewhere in Anbar province, in northern Salaheddin or in Nineveh, a credible local force needs to take over.
“The Iraqi security forces, including the counterterrorism service, the Iraqi army, the Iraqi air force, the federal and local police and the tribal fighters, have demonstrated their resolve in the fight for Ramadi”, said U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the CJTF-OIR commander.
“The clearance of the government center is a significant accomplishment and is the result of many months of hard work”, Col. Steven Warren, a spokesman for US forces in Iraq, said in a statement.
“The prime minister and the head of the armed forces Dr Haider al-Abadi visits the liberated city of Ramadi”, Abadi posted on his Twitter account.
Retired Marine Gen. John Allen, who served as President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the worldwide coalition against the militants until October, said the success in Ramadi is best viewed in the broader context of efforts that have led to Iraqi forces taking back Tikrit, Baiji and other areas from the militants in the past few months. The Americans and Iraqis put in place critical military changes for the Ramadi offensive. After encircling the city for weeks, the Iraqi military launched a campaign to retake it last week, and made a final push to seize the central administration complex today.
In the same district, fighters with the extremist group, also known as ISIS, reportedly killed some 30 fighters who had fled the battlefield in Ramadi. Some can be seen slaughtering sheep in celebration near heavily damaged buildings.
In previous battles since then, Iraq’s armed forces had operated mainly in a supporting role beside powerful Iranian-backed Shi’ite Muslim militias. “There is no resistance from Daesh (IS)”, said Ibrahim al-Fahdawi, a security official from Anbar province, of which Ramadi is the capital.
Authorities have not provided casualty figures from the fighting in the city.
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In addition to lifting the morale of Iraq’s security forces, the Ramadi victory should enhance the political standing of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, the Shiite leader who has been more moderate and reform-minded than his pro-Iran political rivals, who have fueled sectarian violence for years.
