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Iraqi forces seek to tighten hold in Ramadi after gains against Islamic State Iraqi forces appear close to retaking Ramadi from Islamic State
(about 4 hours later)
BAGHDAD — Iraqi troops backed by U.S.-led air support carried out street-by-street advances Monday, seeking to consolidate gains in Ramadi after reclaiming the main government compound from the Islamic State in a critical test for state security forces. BAGHDAD —Government forces appeared close to capturing the capital of Iraq’s largest province from the Islamic State on Monday, dealing a potentially significant blow to the militant group as it loses territory in both Iraq and Syria.
The full extent of Iraqi control of the city remained unclear, and the Islamic State has showed resilience in past battles. Iraqi patrols fanned out slowly through areas rigged with bombs and often within the sights of Islamic State snipers. Soldiers and counterterrorism troops stormed into a sprawling government facility in Ramadi, driving the militants out of the area and effectively ending their seven-month occupation of the city, Iraqi officials said.
But the recapture of the government site Sunday was seen as an important boost for Iraqi units that have struggled to dislodge the Islamic State from its strongholds in the country. Television images showed the troops celebrating after their advance, which was aided by airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition, by raising the Iraqi flag over the compound and slaughtering sheep inside of it.
Regaining control of Ramadi, about 80 miles west of Baghdad, would push the Islamic State farther from Iraqi capital and could become a springboard for a major attempt to unseat the militants from their center of power in Iraq, the northern city of Mosul. The compound was more symbolic than strategic, but its change of hands appeared to be the decisive blow to the militant group’s hold on the city. Now, government forces appear poised to press their offensive: Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, in a statement congratulating his forces for “defeating” the Islamic State in Ramadi, vowed to take the fight to the group in the country’s second-largest city.
In a sign of the fluid contest for Ramadi, however, mixed signals on the status of the battle came from Iraqi authorities. “We are coming to liberate Mosul,” Abadi said.
[Iraqi forces raise flag in center of Ramadi] [Gallery: The fight to regain Ramadi]
A Iraqi military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, announced that the city had been “fully liberated” from the “hateful claws” of the Islamic State, which took control of Ramadi seven months ago. The Islamic State shocked Iraqis in May when it captured Ramadi, capital of Anbar province. Losing the city would represent one of the most dramatic setbacks suffered by the group since its lightning assault across Iraq in June 2014.
But Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, head of military operations in the area, noted that at least 30 percent of Ramadi remained in Islamic State hands. “Daesh are running away now and all the city is under our control,” said Maj. Gen. Hadi Rzaig, head of the Anbar police force. Daesh is the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS and ISIL.
On Sunday, there was a festive atmosphere in Baghdad after reports of Iraqi advances in the heart of Ramadi. State television showed images of people dancing and setting off fireworks as they waved Iraqi flags. Secretary of State John F. Kerry commended Iraq’s government and military for their fight “to return the capital of Anbar province back to the Iraqi people.”
Soldiers in Ramadi staged their own displays, firing into the air and slaughtering a sheep in a ritual of celebration. “While Ramadi is not yet fully secure and additional parts of the city still must be retaken, Iraq’s national flag now flies above the provincial government center and enemy forces have suffered a major defeat,” he said in a statement.
“We are congratulating the Iraqi security forces for their significant progress in Ramadi,” said Army Col. Chris Garver, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State. “We also know the fight for Ramadi isn’t over, and there is still more hard work to do.” The operation to retake Ramadi has produced intense fighting and caused vast destruction in the city, which had a population of more than a million people before the Islamic State takeover. It is unclear how many Iraqi forces and civilians have been killed in the battles, which involved fending off the militant group’s waves of suicide bombers.
The Iraqi military is attempting to repair its tattered reputation after defeats last year by the Islamic State, which seized about a third of the country and forced Iraqi troops in humiliating retreats. The governor of Anbar province, Souhaib al-Rawi, estimated that 1,000 Islamic State militants had been killed during months of grinding assaults to retake Ramadi. He called the capture of the government compound “a victory.”
[Gallery: The fight for Ramadi] Rebuilding Ramadi, if it can be fully secured by the government, will be no easy task.
The military and pro-government forces have slowly clawed back land, but the fight for Ramadi is the first major battle in which Iraq’s powerful Shiite militias have largely been excluded because of concerns about their presence in the largely Sunni city. Suspicion of Iraq’s Shiite-dominated government runs high in the Sunni city, whose residents felt abandoned by officials in Baghdad as Islamic State militants mounted their assault in May. Lacking support from the government, Ramadi residents formed community defenses and even purchased their own weapons to defend the city. Islamic State militants killed scores of residents and exacted other forms of retribution on people who were associated with the government, including home demolitions.
That has allowed Iraqi military forces a chance to prove that they can go it alone. Sunni tribal forces also have been used for the offensive, but largely for holding territory as it is retaken. But among the Iraqi forces in Ramadi on Monday, the mood was celebratory. Speaking to Iraqi television, Gen. Talib Shigati, a senior commander, thanked his troops and expressed confidence in their abilities.
Brig. Gen. Hamid al-Fatlawi, commander of the Iraqi army’s 8th Division, said that Iraqi ­forces had seen limited direct combat around the complex but that the Islamic State had used suicide bombers and car bombs to try to fend off the assault before its fighters fled. [Iraqi armed forces see chance for redemption as they close in on Ramadi]
The militants left explosives throughout the compound, Fatlawi said. “Even the cats walking in the street might be booby-trapped,” he said. “It’s their method of fighting.” The capture of Ramadi would mark the first time that Iraqi armed forces have seized a city from the Islamic State without the aid of the country’s powerful Shiite militias, which did not participate in the operation because of concerns about sectarian tensions with the city’s mostly Sunni inhabitants.
[For Iraqi forces, a chance at redemption] Lt. Gen Abdulghani al-Assadi, a commander of a counterterrorism unit in the city, said that seizing control of the sprawling compound — which contains provincial and municipal government offices — gave his forces the decisive upper hand. That forced most of the militants in Ramadi to flee, but he warned that some neighborhoods had “pockets” of apparent Islamic State militants that still had to be confronted, he said.
The U.S. military said coalition warplanes had carried out dozens of airstrikes in the past week in and around Ramadi. The attacks have destroyed vehicles operated by the militants, a factory used to make vehicle-borne bombs and two houses that were rigged with explosives, according to statements released by the coalition. “We are clearing out the city of booby traps and bombs, but the remaining Daesh fighters are in retreat,” Assadi said, describing the operation as “a historic moment for the Iraqi people and for the Iraqi armed forces.”
In 2006, when U.S. troops battled for control of Ramadi, the government compound was also a key focus of fighting. The push into Ramadi, about 80 miles west of the capital, Baghdad, underscores the flagging battlefield momentum of the Islamic State. The group has been losing control of territory in Iraq and Syria recently to U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab opponents.
“It will take a long time to completely liberate the city,” said Eid al-Karboly, a spokesman for the provincial council of Anbar. Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the chief of U.S. Central Command, congratulated Iraq’s security forces on securing the government complex in Ramadi, calling it “an important operational achievement.” He stopped short of calling it a strategic success, however, perhaps a nod to the tenuous security situation that remains in the city.
He said some of the areas in Ramadi still under Islamic State control include neighborhoods such as Mallab, where civilians are still thought to remain. This has complicated the U.S.-directed air campaign, which has played a major role in the Iraqi advance. Col. Steve Warren, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said in a different statement that the U.S.-led coalition fired more than 630 airstrikes to help Iraqi forces advance on Ramadi. Those forces also received help in clearing improvised-explosive devices and other bombs that the Islamic State deployed against coalition-aligned forces, he said.
Rafaa al- Fahdawi, a tribal chief in the Anbar province that includes Ramadi, told the Reuters news agency that Iraqi forces were defusing booby-traps and other explosives left by the Islamic State. Naylor reported from Istanbul. Brian Murphy and Dan Lamothe in Washington contributed to this report.
Brett McGurk, a special presidential envoy to the U.S.-led coalition, said in a tweet Sunday that airstrikes will continue until other areas are secured.
Naylor reported from Istanbul. Brian Murphy in Washington contributed to this report.
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