Army expels militants from last stronghold
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government said Thursday that its forces had driven Islamic State fighters from the northern city of Hawija, the militants’ final urban stronghold in Iraq, three years after they seized control of nearly a third of the country.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, said in a televised appearance in Paris, where he is on a state visit, that Hawija had been “liberated,” calling it a “victory not just for Iraq but for the whole world.”
The fall of Hawija was confirmed in a statement Thursday by the U.S.-led coalition.
“Our Iraqi partners fought bravely and professionally against a brutal and determined enemy, safeguarding innocent civilians throughout the entire campaign,” said Lt. Gen. Paul Funk. “Thanks to their efforts, Hawijah will return to local governance and security.”
Although fighting is continuing in surrounding districts, the fall of the Hawija area would add to a series of crushing blows for the militants in Iraq, who would be left in control of only a string of desert outposts in the Euphrates River valley and the city of Qaim, on the border with Syria.
Morale among militants in and around Hawija appears to be deteriorating rapidly. At least 600 men identified by Kurdish forces as Islamic State fighters have surrendered to the Kurds in Kirkuk, about 35 miles from Hawija. An additional 400 are being interrogated on suspicion of being militants. Together, they represent roughly a third of an estimated 3,000 Islamic State fighters in the Hawija area before Iraq began military operations there on Sept. 21.
As in other battles over the past three years, Iraqi forces have been supported in Hawija by U.S. military advisers, forward air controllers, special operations troops, air strikes and artillery.
Col. Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the U.S.led coalition in Baghdad, said on Thursday that the United States had conducted 16 air strikes in the past week in support of the Hawija operation. The speed of what seems to have been a two-week Iraqi military sweep through Hawija suggests that the militants are no longer able to sustain effective military operations for long periods.
For example, the battle to drive them from Mosul, Iraq’s secondlargest city, lasted nine months before Mosul was liberated in July. But the next city to fall from the Islamic State, Tal Afar, took only 11 days.