Mourners carry the coffin of a member from the Iraqi security forces, who was killed in the city of Ramadi, during the funeral in Najaf, south of Baghdad, December 28 2015.
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Iraq has declared the city of Ramadi liberated from the control of Islamic State and raised the national flag over its government complex after clinching what would be a key victory against the jihadis, The Guardian reported.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool announced on Monday that government forces had retaken the capital of Anbar Province after a protracted siege.
Iraq’s state TV says Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has arrived in Ramadi to hail the city’s liberation from Islamic State militants.
The United States and its coalition partners had supported the operation with more than 630 air strikes and training and equipment, a White House official said.
But while the airstrikes eventually helped flush out the militants, they smashed large parts of the city into rubble. ISIS, which captured the city in May, is mostly Sunni and Ramadi was its most important prize in 2015.
Even before IS rolled in, Ramadi bore scars from the eight-year US intervention in Iraq. “There are still neighborhoods under their control and there are still resistance pockets”.
Still, the picture In Ramadi steadily improved over the last two weeks, as Baghdad’s forces, backed by American fighter jets and bombers, fought their way to the heart of the city.
The recapture of Ramadi has nevertheless lifted the morale of Iraq’s troops.
Troops had managed to capture the government compound on Sunday, flushing out or killing Islamic State (IS) fighters and suicide bombers who had been holding out in its buildings. Some can be seen slaughtering sheep in celebration near heavily damaged buildings. “We are coming to liberate Mosul and it will be the fatal and final blow to Daesh”, he said in speech praising the army’s “victory” in Ramadi.
The Iraqis were also smart to move gradually against Ramadi. It has roads into Jordan and Syria, and Anbar province is the heartland of Iraq’s Sunni Muslim population.
Al-Belawi insisted that the Sunni fighters had returned and allied with his forces, helping them to advance.
Formed in 2013 from an affiliate of al-Qaeda and known by other names including ISIS, ISIL and Daesh, garnered global headlines for its conquest of territory in Syria and Iraq.
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To prove its ability to defeat ISIS, the Iraqi government will have to continue retaking areas seized by the militant group, such as Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city. IS launched a number of small-scale attacks Tuesday. The extremist group has lost considerable hold on its territory to Iraqi and Kurdish forces, Shiite militias and Sunni tribes. Ramadi and nearby Fallujah, which is controlled by IS, saw some of the heaviest fighting of the eight-year USA intervention in Iraq.
