Iraqi PM visits Ramadi after forces retake it from ISIS

It is unclear how many Iraqi troops and civilians have been killed in the battles, which involved fending off the militant group’s waves of suicide bombers.

Iraqi state TV reported that Haider al-Abadi was in Ramadi but offered no further details. He called the capture of the government compound “a victory”.

Retaking Mosul would effectively mark the end of the caliphate proclaimed by Islamic State in adjacent Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria, according to Zebari.

Authorities have not provided casualty figures from the fighting or Ramadi. Green indicates Iraqi security force-held areas, black indicates ISIS-controlled areas, and red shows contested areas.

The recapture of Ramadi represents the most significant victory for the Iraqi military against ISIS since the group swept across the country’s northern and western Sunni heartlands from January 2014 onwards.

The prime minister went on to congratulate Iraqi forces for their recapturing of the Anbar provincial capital that had fallen into the group’s hands in May. “There are still neighborhoods under their control and there are still pockets of resistance”, he told the Associated Press on Monday, putting the proportion of Ramadi still controlled by militants at 30 percent.

The push into Ramadi, about 80 miles west of the capital, Baghdad, underscores the flagging battlefield momentum of the Islamic State. Anbar, including Ramadi, were major focuses of that campaign at the height of the 2003-2011 USA war in Iraq.

Beyond statements from the Iraqi government and from its media outlets, few have claimed the city is fully liberated.

He also said that the coalition is aware of the threat of possible ambush in insurgent-driven areas.

But officials were hesitant to declare the symbolic move an outright victory over ISIS in Ramadi.

In a televised speech Monday, Abadi heralded the military operation that freed the key city from ISIL’s control, some seven months after the group took it over.

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 US 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.