Iraqi forces capture key section of Ramadi
Fighters celebrate taking of city’s government compound
BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces said Sunday that they had captured the main government compound in Ramadi, a symbolic win in a key city that has been under Islamic State control for seven months.
Engineering teams were still working to clear explosive devices in the area, but the complex was entirely under the control of Iraqi forces, military commanders said. Still, much of the city’s downtown remains in the hands of the militants, Iraqi officials said.
Backed by a barrage of U.S. airstrikes, Iraqi forces have been making steady progress in the western city in recent weeks, but they have been slowed by booby traps and by efforts to avoid civilian casualties.
The battle for Ramadi, about 80 miles west of Baghdad, is a significant test for Iraqi forces, which collapsed during an assault by the militants in May. The city was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting for U.S. military forces during the Iraq war, when they engaged in street battles with Islamic State’s predecessor, al-Qaida.
Although it holds limited strategic value, the government compound is in the heart of the city’s downtown and houses its administrative buildings.
“The compound has been liberated,” said Suhaib al-Rawi, the governor of Anbar province, of which Ramadi is the capital. He said Iraqi forces were now advancing from the south and west to close in on the remaining militant-held neighborhoods.
Sabah Noori, a spokesman for the Iraqi special forces, confirmed that counterterrorism forces had taken control of the complex.
There was a celebratory atmosphere in Baghdad, where state television showed images of people dancing and letting off fireworks as they waved the Iraqi flag in the streets.
Some Iraqi commanders have said that they expect Ramadi to be entirely back under their control by the end of the year, but large neighborhoods are yet to be secured. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said that after the city is recaptured, Iraqi forces will turn their attention to Mosul, the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Iraq.
“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 coalitionled against the Islamic State. “We also know the fight for Ramadi isn’t over, and there is still more hard work to do.”
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. 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 militia groups have largely been excluded, because of concerns about their presence in the largely Sunni city. That has allowed 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.
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 militants fled.
The extremists had left explosives throughout the compound, he said.
“Even the cats walking in the street might be booby-trapped,” he said. “It’s their method of fighting.”