Iraqi army retakes Ramadi from retreating ISIL

“If 2015 was a year of liberation, 2016 will be the year of great victories, terminating the presence of Daesh in Iraq and Mesopotamia”, he said during a televised address in the Iraqi capital Baghdad on Monday.

On Monday, Iraqi forces – backed by U.S.-led airstrikes – drove ISIL fighters out of the city center and raised the Iraqi flag over the government complex there.

Across the city meanwhile, military engineering teams were clearing bombs from the streets and nearby buildings, al-Belawi said, even as sporadic clashes were underway in outlying parts of the city.

But the high cost of liberating Ramadi raises questions about whether the same tactics can be brought to bear in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, which remains under IS control, or other dense urban areas in Iraq and Syria, where IS militants live among civilians.

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.

In a statement, Carter added: “Now it’s important for the Iraqi government…to seize this opportunity to maintain the peace in Ramadi, prevent the return of ISIL and other extremists, and facilitate the return of Ramadi’s citizens back to the city”.

The retaking of Ramadi by Iraq’s army marked the first major success of the U.S.-trained force that initially fled in the face of Islamic State’s advance 18 months ago.

U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, spokesman for the global coalition backing Baghdad, said casualties to Iraqi forces during the battle were in the low double digits.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi vowed that Mosul will soon be liberated and that ISIS will be defeated in 2016.

“Five hundred members of the tribes from the Hashed arrived in northern Ramadi to participate in operations there and hold the liberated areas”, said Major General Ismail Mahalawi, who heads Anbar operations command.

The fall of Ramadi to the Islamic State in May was a blow to the Iraqi government and military, setting back efforts to recapture surrounding Anbar province from the group. Instead, American advisers helped train thousands of local Sunni tribal fighters, who oppose the Islamic State, to secure neighborhoods captured from the militants.

Iraqi military commander Brig.

U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry released a written statement Monday commending Iraqi forces for “displaying tremendous perseverance and courage” in the fight to retake Ramadi. After encircling the city for weeks, the Iraqi military launched a campaign to retake it last week, and made a final push to seize the central administration complex today. Fighting was reported in downtown Ramadi as well as in some communities on the city’s eastern and northern outskirts.

Iraqi state television broadcast footage of Iraqi troops celebrating inside the government compound Monday.