Iraqi PM tours Ramadi to hail city’s liberation from IS

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi planted the national flag in Ramadi on Tuesday after the army retook the city centre from Islamic State a day earlier, a victory that could help vindicate his strategy for rebuilding the military after stunning defeats.

Iraqi security forces have been fighting for months to retake key cities and towns in Anbar, Iraq’s largest province, from IS militants who have seized most of Anbar and tried to advance towards Baghdad.

Over the weekend, al-Abadi had vowed that 2016 would be the year of “final victory” against Daesh in Iraq, saying the next battle against the militant group would be in Mosul, Daesh’s stronghold.

After Ramadi, the army plans to move to retake the northern city of Mosul, the biggest population centre under ISIS control in Iraq and Syria.

There was a celebratory atmosphere in Baghdad, where state television showed images of people dancing and letting off fireworks as they waved the Iraqi flag in the streets. Ramadi’s mostly-Sunni residents fled long ago as it was being taken, so the Iraqi army arrived this month to a largely empty area.

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. “We will reconstruct the city to bring the displaced back to their homes under the protection of Iraqi security forces”. “That support will continue as the mission in Ramadi is completed and we prepare for post-conflict stabilisation”.

A U.S.-led military coalition is supporting Iraq’s campaign to drive ISIL from the country and carried out 630 air strikes during the Iraqi operation in Ramadi.

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

Ramadi fell to ISIS in May, marking a major setback for Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led campaign.

Abadi’s government plans to hand over Ramadi to local police and a Sunni tribal force once it is secured, to encourage Sunnis to resist Islamic State.

After overrunning Ramadi, IS fighters demolished all the bridges around the city.

Sunni members of tribal militias were deployed to the region around Ramadi to maintain security and prevent Islamic State militants from returning, the Iraqi military said. The heavy fighting and limited access to front-lines made it hard to follow the troops’ progress, and Iraqi officials issued a string of sometimes contradictory statements.

Mr Abadi took office in September previous year after the ISIS advance, pledging to reconcile Iraq’s warring sectarian communities.

“However, no one should understate how much work remains and how much more hard that work will be than liberating Ramadi”.