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| Iraqi fighters parade through streets of Ramadi after recapturing it. |
Iraqi troops brandishing rifles danced in the Anbar provincial capital as top commanders paraded through the streets after recapturing the city they lost to Isis in May, clinching a key victory against the jihadis.
“2016 will be the year of the big and final victory, when Daesh’s presence in Iraq will be terminated,” Abadi said in a speech broadcast on state television, using an Arabic acronym for the group.
“We are coming to liberate Mosul and it will be the fatal and final blow to Daesh.” Mosul, northern Iraq’s main city, is by far the largest population centre in territory held by Isis in Iraq and Syria.
There were however conflicting statements from Iraqi military officials over whether the city has been fully liberated. Gen Ismail al-Mahlawi, head of military operations in Anbar, said on Monday that while Iraqi forces had retaken the government complex and central districts, large parts of the city remained under Isis control. He said Isis fighters still controlled 30% of Ramadi, and that government forces did not fully control many districts from which Isis fighters have retreated.
“We can’t say that Ramadi is fully liberated. There are still neighbourhoods under their control and there are still pockets of resistance.”
The White House said Barack Obama had received updates on the Iraqi forces’ progress while on holiday in Hawaii with his family. “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 out of its safe havens,” the White House said in a statement, using an alternative name for Isis.
The US Defense Secretary, Ash Carter, said: “The expulsion of Isil by Iraqi security forces ... is a significant step forward in the campaign to defeat this barbaric group.”
One Iraqi army general said the main task now facing Iraqi forces was to defuse the countless bombs and traps Isis left behind.
Brig Gen Majid al-Fatlawi of the army’s 8th division told the Associated Press that the advance on Ramadi had been hampered by suicide bombers, snipers and booby traps. “Daesh has planted more than 300 explosive devices on the roads and in the buildings of the government complex,” he said.
The French president, François Hollande, said the reconquest of Ramadi was the most important victory yet in the fight against the jihadis, while Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said “it shows once again that Isis is not unbeatable”.
News of the progress came as the British military said it had conducted airstrikes to aid the advance into the Sunni heartland city.
A spokesman for the UK’s Royal Air Force said armed reconnaissance missions by Tornado and Typhoon jets as well as drones had destroyed targets including large groups of terrorists fighting Iraqi government forces.
A number of successful strikes were also carried out near the city of Mosul and in support of the Kurdish paramilitary, the peshmerga, in close combat with Isis fighters in the north of the country, the Ministry of Defence said.
The UK’s defence secretary, Philip Hammond, described the loss of Ramadi as a significant blow for the extremists. “This is the latest in a series of significant losses for Daesh,” he said. “These barbaric terrorists have lost 30% of the territory they once held in Iraq. They have been driven out of cities across the country by Iraqi forces, with support from the UK and the global coalition.
“The Royal Air Force’s close air support operations around Ramadi in recent days have played a key role. We will continue to support the government of Iraq as it re-establishes the security, governance and services the people of Ramadi will need as they return to their city.
“This remains a long fight, but the coalition’s strategy is succeeding. We will continue to stand with the Iraqi people until Daesh is defeated.”
Progress in the gruelling ground offensive, launched last week, had been slow, with the militants entrenched in a city that remains home to thousands of civilians trapped in the midst of the battle. But the latest developments appear to reverse the embarrassing defeat in May, in which Ramadi fell to a few hundred Isis fighters.
Isis had an estimated force of about 400 fighters to defend central Ramadi a week ago. It is not clear how many were killed and how many were able to pull back to positions outside the city.
The assault has been led by members of Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism unit, who have taken the lead in battling the militants and circumventing the booby traps laid down by Isis fighters throughout the city.
The loss of Ramadi is the latest in a series of defeats for Isis in recent months in both Iraq and Syria, which has prompted the group’s leader and self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to issue a rare audio recording meant to reassure his followers.
In November, Isis lost the city of Sinjar, the ancestral homeland of the Yazidi minority, to an offensive led by the Kurdish peshmerga and backed by US warplanes. Kurdish forces are also working to sever the militants’ supply lines between Syria and Iraq.
Meanwhile, across the border, Kurdish paramilitaries have conquered large swaths of northern Syria from the terror group, drawing closer to Isis’s de facto capital of Raqqa. The militants also still hold Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province in the north.
The city of Ramadi carries crucial symbolic value. Anbar was once the scene of the “Sunni Awakening” campaign during the US occupation, which recruited local Sunnis to fight against al-Qaida in Iraq, the precursor of Isis.
The fall of the province’s capital to the militants was a sign of how far Iraq’s unravelling as a nation state had come since the overthrow in 2003 of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The fighting in Anbar has displaced millions of Iraqis, with many still trapped within the city, risking their use as human shields by Isis fighters, who have repeatedly called on them to remain within the caliphate’s borders.
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