Iraq’s Abadi visits Ramadi after Islamic State defeat: security sources

“The military will be carrying out mopping-up operations in Ramadi and moving to other areas to liberate them and recapture them from the terrorists”, Anbar police spokesman Yasser al-Dulaimi said.

However, Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, head of military operations in Anbar, said that troops had only retaken the complex itself, and parts of the city remained under ISIS control.

Iraq’s counter-terrorism forces have raised the Iraqi flag above the central government complex in the western city of Ramadi, a military spokesman said, a day after the army declared victory over Islamic State fighters holding the city. The success marks the first major victory for Iraq’s military over the militants, although some fighting is expected to continue in the days to come.

Analysts say recapturing the provincial capital, which is just 100km west of Baghdad, could deprive ISIL of its biggest prize of 2015.

Mosul, 250 miles 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. Sabah al-Numani, a spokesman for the government forces, told Reuters that “the next step is to clear pockets that could exist here or there in the city”. Daesh, which is an extremist jihadist group outlawed in Russian Federation and many other countries, has seized large areas in Syria and Iraq in 2014, declaring a caliphate on territories under its control.

Concerns have been expressed that the Shiite militia units that supported the government offensive may mistreat the mainly Sunni civilians living in liberated Anbar cities.

Retaking the mostly Sunni city of Mosul would be hard as the local and regional players in northern Iraq have diverging agendas.

Iraqi officials said earlier that IS fighters slowed the government assault with snipers, improvised roadside bombs, and suicide attackers.

French President Francois Hollande called the liberation of Ramadi the “most important victory yet” in the fight against the jihadists.

111-c-09-(Ashraf Khalil (AHSH’-rahf kah-LEEL’), AP correspondent)-“have retreated from”-AP correspondent Ashraf Khalil reports Islamic State militants have retreated from about 70 percent of city, but the situation is in flux”.

The Mobilization, known in Arabic as Hashid Shaabi, is a loosely knit coalition of Iran-backed Shi’ite militias set up to fight Islamic State.

Many of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s political rivals had questioned his strategy of excluding those groups and relying on the US-led coalition’s air power.

Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said the capture of Ramadi was “a done deal” but said the government had to do more to rebuild the city and encourage displaced people to return.