RAMADI: Iraq declared the city of Ramadi liberated from the Daesh group on Monday and raised the national flag over its government complex after clinching a landmark victory against the militants.
Fighters brandishing rifles danced in the Anbar provincial capital as top commanders paraded through the streets after recapturing the city they lost to Daesh in May.
Pockets of militants may remain but the army said it no longer faced any resistance and that its main task was to defuse the countless bombs and traps Daesh left behind.
“Ramadi has been liberated and the armed forces of the counter-terrorism service have raised the Iraqi flag above the government complex,” Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool announced on state television.
The former government headquarters in Ramadi was the epicenter of the fighting but Iraqi forces did not rush in when Daesh pulled out because the entire area was rigged.
“Daesh has planted more than 300 explosive devices on the roads and in the buildings of the government complex,” said Brig. Gen. Majid Al-Fatlawi of the army’s 8th division.
Several local officials said Daesh used civilians as human shields to escape the battle when it became clear their last stand in Ramadi was doomed.
A senior army commander told AFP that his forces were still sweeping the outskirts of the city for potential pockets of rebels.
Daesh had an estimated force of around 400 fighters to defend central Ramadi a week ago. It is not clear how many were killed and how many were able to pull back to positions outside the city.
The Iraqi authorities did not divulge any casualty figures for the federal forces but medics told AFP that close to 100 wounded government fighters were brought to Baghdad hospitals on Sunday alone.
“The dead bodies are taken directly to the main military hospital” near the airport, said one hospital source, explaining why he could not provide a death toll.
The US-led anti-Daesh coalition praised the performance of the Iraqi forces in retaking Ramadi, an operation in which it played a significant role, training local forces, arming them and carrying out what it said were 600 air strikes since July.
The speaker of Iraq’s parliament was one of the first top officials to congratulate the security forces on their victory late Sunday.
“This great victory has broken the back of Daesh and represents a launchpad for the liberation of Nineveh,” Salim Al-Juburi said in a statement.
Nineveh is home to Iraq’s second city of Mosul, from which Daesh supremo Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi proclaimed his “caliphate” straddling Iraq and Syria more than a year and a half ago.
State television showed footage late Sunday of Iraqis on the streets of Baghdad, Karbala and other cities celebrating the Ramadi victory.
Anbar residents account for more than a third of the 3.2 million Iraqis who have been displaced by conflict since the start of 2014.
