Iraq PM Haider al-Abadi visits recaptured Ramadi

Abadi arrived by helicopter in the ravaged city, which is located about 100 kilometers west of Iraq.

“We commend the government of Iraq and the courageous Iraqi forces that are displaying tremendous perseverance and courage in this fight”, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said in a written statement.

After months of preparation, Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes pushed into Ramadi’s center last week in a concerted effort to recapture the city.

The TV did not elaborate on al-Abadi’s visit Tuesday to the Anbar provincial capital but an Iraqi commander, Brig.

Iraq’s prime minister visited the city of Ramadi on Tuesday, a day after claiming its capture from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) after a months-long siege by the armed group.

USA officials appear to be more cautious about the scale of the challenge than their jubilant Iraqi counterparts.

He said the U.S.-led coalition has carried out more than 630 airstrikes, in addition to training security forces and providing both advice and equipment to clear bombs and booby traps.

Abadi has promoted a big role for homegrown security forces in post-Daesh Ramadi in a bid to avoid any sectarian tensions and increase the chances that Sunnis will be convinced to work with the government and not with Daesh.

Washington had hoped that potentially decisive battle would take place in 2015, but it was pushed back after IS seized Ramadi.

Winning back Mosul would successfully mark the end of the caliphate declared by Daesh in neighboring Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria, according to Zebari.

Iraqi army spokesman Yahya Rasool opined that, the military had to depend on the powerful Shiite militias in the past, but there is no such need now. Now, some of the 5,000 Sunni tribesmen trained by the USA will help clear and hold Ramadi, Warren said.

Mosul, 400km north of Baghdad, has been designated by the government as the next target for Iraq’s armed forces after they retook the western city of Ramadi. “The next step is to liberate Mosul and to cleanse the Iraqi lands that have been raped by the terrorist Daesh gang”. Members of Iraq’s military argued over who was at fault, with one soldier telling NPR in June that the government force was ordered to withdraw from the city with just 30 minutes’ notice.

Authorities have not provided casualty figures from the fighting or Ramadi.

Iraqi Army clebrating the defeat of islamic State in RamadiHisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based analyst who has worked with the Iraqi government, said the retaking of Ramadi suggested Abadi’s strategy of heavy USA air support while sidelining the Shi’ite militias, which have served as a bulwark against Islamic State but drawn objections from Washington, could be effective.