‘Ramadi Is Liberated’: Key Victory Over IS

Ramadi fell to ISIL in May, an embarrassing setback to the Iraqi forces.

ISIS fighters pulled out of their last stronghold in Ramadi on Sunday, bringing Iraqi federal forces within sight of their biggest victory since the 2014 debacle. “There is no resistance”, Sabah al-Numan told AFP.

He said the “operation is nearly wrapped up”, but a major clearing effort was still needed to allow forces to move in.

ISIS fighters were vastly outnumbered by Iraqi soldiers when they pushed into the city in May, leading U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter to declare Iraq’s forces lacked “the will to fight”.

The fighting over the past two days had been concentrated around the former government complex, which IS fighters defended with snipers, suicide vehicle bomb attacks and hundreds of roadside bombs and booby traps.

Iraqi military sources say that more than 50 militants were killed in the past 48 hours alone. Still, much of the city’s downtown remains in the hands of the militants, Iraqi officials said.

The Iraq army on Sunday announced the defeat of Islamic State fighters in Ramadi, a provincial capital west of Baghdad.

Iraqi troops have regained control of a government complex in Ramadi, drawing closer to ousting Islamic State militants from the Sunni heartland city conquered last summer.

The Associated Press reported it was told by an officer that Iraqi army has yet to gain full control of a single Ramadi neighborhood.

Meanwhile on Saturday, the Army of Islam and allied militant groups in Syria mourned the killing of Zahran Alloush, a top Syrian rebel commander who led one of the most powerful groups battling president Bashar al-Assad’s forces, while government supporters and the Islamic State group cheered his death – a reflection of his role in fighting both sides in the Syrian civil war.

Officials did not give any immediate figures for the number of people killed in the battle. “We don’t want to fix an exact time, for security reasons, but our troops will take over the entire city of Ramadi”.

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 nationwide lost to IS past year.