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Iraqi Forces Retake Center of Ramadi From ISIS Iraqi Forces Retake Center of Ramadi From ISIS
(about 5 hours later)
BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces said on Monday they had seized a strategic government complex in the western city of Ramadi from the Islamic State after a fierce weeklong battle, putting them on the verge of a crucial victory following a brutal seven-month occupation of the city by the extremist group. BAGHDAD — Breaking months of occupation by the Islamic State, Iraqi troops on Monday retook most of Ramadi, the most populous city in western Iraq, overrunning a government compound at the city center and dealing a setback to the terrorist group’s deadly hold on large parts of the country.
The loss of Ramadi, the capital and most populous city of the western Iraqi province of Anbar, would be the most significant in a string of recent defeats for the Islamic State, which has occupied a large stretch of Iraq and Syria since the middle of last year. Iraqi soldiers continued to face stiff resistance by Islamic State fighters in several pockets, and their hold on Ramadi — achieved after a week of fierce fighting with help from American fighter jets that pounded enemy positions — remained tenuous. In Washington, Pentagon officials warned that it would be premature to declare outright victory.
“The security forces have entered the governmental buildings and raised the Iraqi flags over them after killing many ISIS militants, and the rest have escaped,” said Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, a spokesman for the Iraqi military. But if the government manages to hold Ramadi, it could prove pivotal to the efforts to beat back the Islamic State in Iraq and, ultimately, to roll back its gains in Syria as well.
Although he declared the city “fully liberated,” another military commander, Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, later said that pockets of resistance remained in about 30 percent of the city. On Twitter, supporters of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, were dismissive of the reports that Ramadi was about to fall. The Ramadi campaign was the latest in a string of defeats for the Islamic State, which has lost as much as 40 percent of the Iraqi territory it conquered last year. Iraq’s prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, who announced the city’s “liberation” on Twitter on Monday night,
Heavy fighting was reported in the downtown neighborhood of Huz, as well as in the communities of Sajariya and Sufiya, on the eastern outskirts of the city, and Albu Ghanim, to the north. Islamic State fighters captured those villages in April before moving on to the center of Ramadi. has vowed to now focus on recapturing Mosul, a larger city in the north that the Islamic State seized in 2014.
Nonetheless, the retaking of the government complex — the last major redoubt of Islamic State fighters in Ramadi — was a strategic and symbolic victory after days of fighting. The battle for Ramadi, which had proceeded in fits and starts since the summer, was waged partly by Sunni tribesmen whom American troops had trained to fight alongside the forces of the Shiite-dominated government. If it continues, such cooperation — a delicate alliance, given Iraq’s long history of sectarian violence — could help corrode the Islamic State’s claim to represent all of Sunni Islam.
The last Islamic State fighters fled the compound around midday, having been encircled by Iraqi counterterrorism forces and police officers, backed by Sunni tribesmen who oppose the militant group and by American airstrikes. The retaking of the city center began around 8 a.m., when government tanks and bulldozers breached the walls around the local government complex. Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Belawi, the leader of a battalion of Sunni tribal fighters, said the remaining militants either fled or were killed. State television broadcast images of soldiers raising the Iraqi flag above the compound, and singing the national anthem. The number of casualties was unclear.
Eid Ammash, a spokesman for the Anbar provincial council, said in a telephone interview that troops had been careful about entering the government complex, to minimize losses. A military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, declared the city “liberated,” but other Iraqi officials later offered more cautious assessments.
“We are trying to remove all the I.E.D.s and explosives before entering the governmental compound,” he said, referring to improvised explosive devices. By the evening, a military commander, Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, estimated that the government controlled 75 percent to 80 percent of the Ramadi area. Insurgents were still in control of several suburbs, including the villages of Sajariya, Sufiya and Albu Ghanim, northeast of Ramadi, and three towns to the east: Albu Bali, north of the Euphrates River, and Khaldiya and Husayba al-Sharqiya, south of the river.
Mazin al-Dulaimi, a police commander involved with the Anbar offensive, acknowledged by telephone that “there is difficulty in breaking into the governmental compound because a number of suicide bombers and snipers are still inside the compound.” General Mahlawi said those areas “will be liberated quickly,” but declined to specify a timetable. A Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details, warned that Islamic State fighters might have escaped by melting into the local population.
He said that intercepted wireless communications suggested the snipers in the government complex had been trying to obstruct the Iraqi forces’ advance, to facilitate the escape of fellow militants. Supporters of the Islamic State, which relies heavily on social media for recruitment and publicity, had used Twitter to dismiss reports of the impending fall of Ramadi as exaggerated or fabricated. But on Monday evening, an online account associated with the group called on supporters to “not forget your brothers in Ramadi” in their prayers — an implicit acknowledgment that the Islamic State was under siege.
“The clearance of the government center is a significant accomplishment and is the result of many months of hard work by the Iraqi Army, the Counterterrorism Service, the Iraqi Air Force, local and federal police, and tribal fighters,” Col. Steven H. Warren, the United States military spokesman in Baghdad, said in a statement. “Today’s success is a proud moment for Iraq.” “The clearance of the government center is a significant accomplishment,” Col. Steven H. Warren, the United States military spokesman in Baghdad, said in a statement. “Today’s success is a proud moment for Iraq.”
Ramadi has been one of the most significant cities under the extremist group’s control, along with its self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa, Syria; the northern Iraqi city of Mosul; and the Iraqi city of Falluja, which sits between Ramadi and the capital, Baghdad, nearly 60 miles to the east. Colonel Warren said that the American-led coalition had conducted, as part of the Ramadi campaign, more than 600 airstrikes since July, including three on Sunday that hit 18 targets.
Reasserting control over Ramadi would allow Iraq to cut off supply lines to Falluja and would make it very difficult for the Islamic State to continue to hold that city. In recent months, the Islamic State has had to withdraw from the town of Sinjar, in northwest Iraq, near the Syrian border, and the cities of Tikrit and Baiji, in the “Sunni triangle” north of Baghdad.
It would also give a much-needed lift to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who leads Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government but has tried to reach out to the country’s large Sunni minority. Mr. Abadi’s predecessor, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, thoroughly alienated the Sunni population. Ramadi had been one of the largest cities under the extremist group’s control, along with its self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa, Syria. It still controls Mosul and Falluja, which sits between Ramadi and the capital, Baghdad, nearly 60 miles to the east.
On Monday, Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Belawi, the leader of a battalion of tribal fighters, told The Associated Press that the militants stopped returning fire from inside the Ramadi government compound around 8 a.m. “We believe that they were either killed or fled,” he said. The fall of Ramadi to the Islamic State in May was an embarrassing blow to the Iraqi government and military, setting back efforts to recapture the surrounding Anbar Province from the group.
Colonel Warren, the United States military spokesman in Baghdad, said the Iraqi forces had been “supported by over 600 coalition airstrikes since July.” On Sunday alone, he said, coalition planes launched three airstrikes over Ramadi, hitting 18 targets. Reasserting control over Ramadi, the capital and largest city in Anbar, will allow Iraq to cut off supply lines to Falluja and may make it very difficult for the Islamic State to continue to hold that city. American-trained Sunni tribesmen are part of a force that is supposed to hold Ramadi and prevent Islamic State militants from returning.
The Islamic State, which relies heavily on social media for recruitment and publicity, has played down its setbacks in recent months. Its fighters have been expelled from the town of Sinjar, in northwest Iraq, near the Syrian border, and the cities of Tikrit and Baiji, in the “Sunni triangle” north of Baghdad. On Thursday, the Islamic State released a flurry of statements saying it had killed at least 30 members of the Iraqi government forces, perhaps in an attempt to bolster morale. President François Hollande of France, who declared his country to be “at war” with the Islamic State after the Nov. 13 terrorist attacks in Paris, on Monday congratulated the Iraqi prime minister on Monday and called the “liberation” of Ramadi “the most important victory since the start of the fight against the terrorist organization” last year.
Pierre-Jean Luizard, director of research at the National Center for Scientific Research in France, and the author of a recent book about the Islamic State, cautioned against seeing Ramadi as a turning point. He said the Islamic State’s power derives not from military strength but from “the weakness of its enemies, first and foremost the Iraqi state with its Shiite-dominated government.” “This is a major step in restoring the authority of the Iraqi state in the service of all its citizens,” Mr. Hollande said.
Dr. Luizard added that the Islamic State could not be defeated until the Sunni Arab minority — which dominated Iraq until the United States invasion toppled Saddam Husseini in 2003 — is ensured a place in the government, particularly after a decade in which sectarian violence has ebbed and flowed. Since the summer, the United States has been training Sunni tribal members who oppose the Islamic State to help lead the effort to retake Ramadi, while the Iraqi government has kept some of its most effective fighting forces — Iranian-backed Shiite militias — out of the fight for fear of alienating the local population. Eid Ammash, a spokesman for the Anbar provincial council, said in a telephone interview that troops had been careful about entering the government complex in Ramadi to minimize losses, and a police commander, Mazin al-Dulaimi, said that forces had to make sure that suicide bombers and snipers were no longer inside the compound.
But Dr. Luizard predicted that if Sunni leaders in Anbar Province and other Sunni-majority areas of Iraq were not granted legitimate autonomy, the Islamic State would make a comeback. “The Islamic State continues to make a better offer to the people it controls than the Baghdad government — whose return is the greatest fear of most inhabitants,” he said of the Sunnis of Anbar Province. Through intercepted wireless communications, he said, the police learned that snipers in the government complex had been trying to delay the Iraqi forces’ advance, to facilitate the escape of fellow militants.
But Pierre-Jean Luizard, director of research at the National Center for Scientific Research in France, and the author of a recent book about the Islamic State, cautioned against seeing Ramadi as a turning point. He said the Islamic State’s power derived not from military strength but from “the weakness of its enemies, first and foremost the Iraqi state with its Shiite-dominated government.”
Dr. Luizard added that the Islamic State could not be defeated unless the Sunni Arab minority, which dominated Iraq until the United States invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, were assured a place in the government, which he said would require different constitutional arrangements.
“The Islamic State continues to make a better offer to the people it controls than the Baghdad government, whose return is the greatest fear of most inhabitants,” he said of the Sunnis of Anbar Province.
Still, Daniel L. Byman, a Georgetown professor who studies global jihadist movements, said the campaign to retake Ramadi was a cause for cautious optimism.
“It’s not an isolated event or simply a symbolic victory,” he said. “It shows the Islamic State is facing real reversals on the ground.”
He said Sunni tribes in Anbar Province were ultimately pragmatic. “They want a high degree of independence, but they also want to be on the side of the winners,” he added. That said, Dr. Byman warns that the Islamic State still has tremendous resources.
“If it can expand in Syria even while losing in Iraq, it can still claim victory,” he said. “It needs the perception of success. And one reason it’s expanding its terrorist operations outside the Middle East is because of the military losses in Iraq. The more losses it suffers on the ground, the more likely it is to strike back with international terrorism.”