Iraqi Forces Retake Key City of Ramadi From Islamic State

As per reports, the Iraqi military was encircling the city for weeks and chose to launch as assault last week.

The speaker of Iraq’s parliament was one of the first top officials to congratulate the security forces on their victory late Sunday.

On 27 December, the Iraqi army declared it had defeated dreaded terrorist group Islamic State in Ramadi, west of Baghdad. They reached the area at dawn as part of a major offensive aimed at dislodging the Islamic State militia from the western Iraqi city.

Although it holds limited strategic value, the government compound is in the heart of the city’s downtown and houses its administrative buildings.

Another officer said the Iraqi army has yet to gain full control of a single Ramadi neighborhood.

The US-led anti-IS coalition praised the performance of the Iraqi forces in retaking Ramadi, an operation in which it played a significant role, training local forces, arming them and carrying out what it said were 600 air strikes since July.

“We expect to reach the compound in the next 24 hours, ” said Mr Numani. Gen. Yahya Rasool initially announced that Ramadi had been “grabbed from the hateful claws” of ISIS.

“Islamic State actually had very few fighters in Ramadi for such a large city, probably less than a thousand, so the request he was never if you were going to defeat them, [but how and when]”.

Anbar provincial council member Falih al-Essawi called on the government to restore services to Ramadi quickly and start rebuilding the city to allow the return of the displaced.

The fightback has often been laborious and poisoned by political wrangling, but defence minister Khaled Al Obeidi said a week ago that Iraqi forces had reclaimed half of the territory lost to ISIL past year. That has allowed military forces a chance to prove that they can go it alone.

Militants took over Ramadi in May. But some officials have expressed doubt that the city can be secured that quickly.

When sniper fire from the compound stopped, and aerial surveillance detected nohuman activity, a group of Iraqi soldiers moved in, the source said. Gen. Ismail Mahlawi, the head of Anbar Operations Command.

“We were totally surprised today”, the officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the press.

“All the infrastructure of the city has been destroyed”, Karboly said.