Iraqi PM vows to drive IS from country

Ramadi and nearby Fallujah, which is controlled by IS, saw some of the heaviest fighting of the eight-year USA intervention in Iraq.

“Mosul needs good planning, preparations, commitment from all the key players”, Zebari, a Kurd, said in an interview on Monday in Baghdad. The Baghdad government was quick to announce a counter-offensive to retake the city but attempts repeatedly stalled.

The battle to recapture Ramadi has been hampered by numerous suicide bombers, snipers and booby traps.

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.

Earlier reports had said government forces entered the compound Sunday.

A few hours later, military spokesman Brig. “We are coming to liberate Mosul and it will be the fatal and final blow to Daesh”, he said in speech praising the army’s “victory” in Ramadi. “There are still neighborhoods under their control, and there are still pockets of resistance”.

No official estimates have been released of either government or ISIS casualties, or the death toll among the Ramadi residents who had not fled.

The military spokesperson said that the insurgents are still dug into pockets of the city west of Baghdad.

“We congratulate them on this important operational achievement”, he said.

General Lloyd Austin, head of US Central Command which is overseeing the US role in the campaign, said Ramadi’s fall “clearly demonstrates that the enemy is losing momentum as they steadily cede territory”.

The IS group still controls much of northern and western Iraq, as well as vast swaths of neighboring Syria. It has declared a caliphate in the areas under its control and imposed a harsh and violent interpretation of Islamic law.

Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters 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. “It comes after losses this year in Tikrit, Baiji, Sinjar, and across northern Syria”.

“It’s a major step in the re-establishment of the authority of the state in Iraq”, the statement added.

“We can see that huge damage was caused in the city and I don’t think that basic services will return for a while, nor will security”, he said.

Abadi took office in September 2014 after the Islamic State advance, pledging to reconcile Iraq’s warring sectarian communities. Such a policy dovetails with the widespread discussion in U.S. and European military and strategic circles that the only way to maintain control over the oil-rich Middle East-after more than a decade of military setbacks and debacles for USA policy-is the partition of Iraq and Syria into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish mini-states.