RAMADI

Ramadi was captured by Isis in May 2015 and recaptured by the Iraqi military in December 2015.

The capital of heavily Sunni Muslim Anbar province once had a population of at least 500,000. Although occupied by Isis for only half a year, much of the city was obliterated in the Iraqi military’s prolonged campaign to retake it, which included hundreds of bombing runs by US warplanes and block-by-block combat with Isis fighters who created a network of underground tunnels and hideouts.

Many residents fled, staying in camps for internally displaced people administered by the United Nations and other aid groups.

Today, 10 months after Iraq’s Shia-led government proclaimed Ramadi liberated, parts of the city remain unlivable because of bombs and other dangerous remnants of war ensconced in the rubble or deliberately placed in vacant schools, homes and hospitals.

The Iraqi prime minister’s office estimated that 90% of Ramadi was contaminated with explosives when Isis was defeated.