This is perhaps unsurprising, as desperation to declare victory in Ramadi before year’s end had already led the Iraqi military to announce that they had “full control” of the provincial capital building even though they hadn’t even attempted to enter it yet.
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The provincial headquarters had been the epicentre of the fighting since Iraqi forces punched through Daesh defences a week ago to cap a months-long operation to retake Ramadi. The Iraqi armed forces and the Shiite militia receive significant training and battlefield support from the Iranians.
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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.
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According to AFP, Iraqi officials have estimated the number of ISIS militants in Ramadi city to be 440.
The advance of Iraqi forces into the heart of Ramadi, a restive city that fell to the Islamic State group earlier this year, in some ways vindicated the US-led coalition’s strategy for rolling back the extremists – but victory has come at a high cost, and the same tactics might not work elsewhere.
Turkish Defense Minister Ismat Yilmaz said last week their forces were there to “train and reorganize defensive military units” in the area. She told Al Jazeera that Ramadi is a key testing ground for the Iraqi government. Ramadi is a Sunni city and a Sunni force in the city is considered essential for long-term security.
The government has regularly sent monthly salaries to state employees in Mosul despite the ISIS control, fearing more people would turn to ISIS if Baghdad withheld their wages.
Col. Steve Warren, U.S. spokesman for the anti-IS military operation, said that since May, the coalition had launched 630 airstrikes in and around Ramadi and trained some of the Iraqi forces that took the city back.
French President François Hollande called the liberation of Ramadi the “most important victory yet” in the fight against the jihadists. “They promised to stand in Ramadi, but they were cowards”.
Abadi took office in September 2014 after the Islamic State advance, pledging to reconcile Iraq’s warring sectarian communities. However, Sunni fighters from Anbar tribes opposed to the militants also officially belong to the group, which is nominally under Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s command.
The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued by gruesome violence ever since Daesh mounted an offensive in the country in June 2014.
The recapture of Ramadi “is a real accomplishment but the keeping and governing of Ramadi will be a much bigger one for Iraq”, said Patrick Skinner, an analyst with the Soufan Group risk intelligence consultancy.
Gen. Abdel Ghani Al Assadi says that his men made sacrifices and many gave up their lives in the bitter battle against Islamic State. Anbar was once the scene of the “Sunni Awakening” campaign during the United States occupation, which recruited local Sunnis to fight against al-Qaida in Iraq, the precursor of Isis.
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Mouadan was planning further attacks against the West, he added.
