Iraqi forces, though backed by U.S.-led coalition air strikes, had been slowed in Ramadi by bombs planted in streets and booby-trapped buildings by Islamic State fighters.
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Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Belawi said Islamic State militants stopped firing from inside the government complex about 8 a.m. Monday and that troops were encircling it as engineering teams cleared booby traps.
Baghdad has said for months it would prove its forces’ rebuilt capability by rolling back militant advances in Anbar, a mainly Sunni province stretching from Baghdad’s outskirts to the Syrian border.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has vowed to rid the entire country of Daesh in 2016, shortly after government forces liberated the city of Ramadi from the Takfiri terrorists.
“While Ramadi is not yet fully secure and additional parts of the city still must be retaken, Iraq’s national flag now flies above the provincial government center and enemy forces have suffered a major defeat”, he said in a statement.
The Iraqis were also smart to move gradually against Ramadi.
U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for the worldwide coalition backing Baghdad, said casualties to Iraqi forces during the battle were in the low double digits.
They swept through northern and western Iraq in June 2014 and declared a “caliphate” to rule over all Muslims from territory in both Iraq and Syria, carrying out mass killings and imposing a draconian form of Sunni Islam.
Concerns have been expressed that the militia units that supported the government offensive may mistreat the civilians living in liberated Anbar cities.
When IS captured Ramadi earlier this year, the militants blew up the homes of members of the security forces, but even those demolitions did not compare with the destruction wrought by the U.S.-led warplanes, according to al-Belawi.
The capture in May of Ramadi, the capital of the province of Anbar which lies about 90km (55 miles) west of Baghdad, was an embarrassing defeat for the Iraqi army. “The conditions fostering terrorism will remain if the government does not embark on reform and reconciliatory efforts to engage marginalized Iraqis into an all-inclusive political process based on the rule of law, justice and civil state building”. Instead, regular Iraqi military units led the way using some relatively low-tech, non-lethal American equipment that helped turn the tide of the fight.
Authorities gave no immediate death toll from the battle for the city.
“The continued progress of the Iraqi security forces in the fight to retake Ramadi is a testament to their courage and determination, and our shared commitment to push ISIL [Islamic State] out of its safe-havens”, the White House said.
“Ultimately, for Sunni residents to come back, they need to feel that there is a force there that will protect their interests”.
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“Analysts have also for a long time said that the problem of ISIS in Iraq and Syria won’t be resolved until there’s strong central governments in those places who can offer the people living under ISIS a better life than what they now have”.
