Iraqi PM Haider Abadi visits liberated Ramadi

“‘If 2015 is the ‘year of liberation, ‘ then Allah willing, 2016 will be the year of great victory, the year of final victory, and the end of the Islamic State in Iraq”, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi said in a televised statement marking the government’s recapturing of the city of Ramadi.

Fighters brandishing rifles danced in the Anbar provincial capital as top commanders paraded through the streets after recapturing the city lost to IS in May.

Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Belawi told The Associated Press that Abadi began his visit by meeting security and provincial officials for the latest updates.

The US-led coalition, which includes major European and Arab powers, has been waging an air campaign against Islamic State positions in both Iraq and Syria since a third of Iraqi territory fell to the fighters in mid-2014.

Gen. Yahya Rasoul said: “Ramadi has been liberated [from Daesh] and counterterrorism troops have raised the Iraqi flag on the government complex in Anbar”. Military officials say the forces seized the main government complex there, and say insurgents are still operating in pockets of the city, west of Baghdad.

Most of the Islamic State militants in the area had probably fled the city already for their stronghold in Fallujah nearer to Baghdad, al-Dulaimi said.

Iraqi and western forces dealt a “significant blow” to the extremists when their regained control Ramadi yesterday, Phillip Hammond said.

Nevertheless, USA Today quoted Abdul Ghani Al Assad, an Iraqi military commander, as saying that ISIS still held outlying districts of Ramadi, but the terrorists were now on the run. While the battle for Ramadi lasted eight months, it took a month to win back Tikrit, a city north of Baghdad and hometown of Saddam Hussein.

Meanwhile, the United States on December 28 welcomed the Iraqi forces’ victory over ISIL in Ramadi.

“To fulfil his promise of defeating IS, he will have to continue these policies of improving relations, especially with the Sunni community of Iraq”, says Riad Kahwaji, founder of the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai.

The government has said local Sunni tribal fighters will comprise the main holding force in Ramadi, a role played in other areas taken from Islamic State by mainly Iranian-backed Shi’ite armed groups.

State TV on Monday showed pictures of soldiers in Ramadi firing their guns in the air and publicly slaughtering a sheep in celebration.

“In Ramadi, these efforts will be led by the Iraqi government and coordinated on the ground by Anbar Governor Sohaib al-Rawi and his team”, he said, adding that the U.S. and members of the Coalition have pledged or contributed over $50 million to the UNDP stabilisation fund to support these efforts. The expulsion of ISIS militants from Ramadi is seen as a symbolic achievement for the Iraqi army, after it suffered a humiliating defeat in May.