The Baghdad government says its forces have recaptured a government complex in the Sunni city, leaving them closer to ousting the terror group

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Iraqi troops have regained control of a government complex in Ramadi, officials claimed, drawing closer to ousting Islamic State militants from the Sunni heartland city conquered last summer.

Progress in the gruelling ground offensive launched last week has been slow, with the militants entrenched in a city that remains home to thousands of civilians trapped in the midst of the battle.

Taking control of the central state buildings on Sunday, a site conquered by Isis earlier this year, brings Iraqi troops closer to reversing an embarrassing defeat that saw the capital of Anbar province fall to a few hundred fighters from the terror group in May.

“By controlling the complex this means that they have been defeated in Ramadi,” Sabah al-Numani, a spokesman for the government forces, told Reuters. “The next step is to clear pockets that could exist here or there in the city.”

Isis takes Iraqi city of Ramadi Read more

However, a US defence official said on Sunday that it was not clear whether the complex had been regained.

“We are unable to confirm at this time whether or not they have cleared the government center,” a US military official told Reuters, on condition of anonymity.

The assault has been led by members of Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism unit, who have taken the lead in battling the militants and circumventing the booby traps laid down by Isis fighters throughout the city.

“I think the liberation of the government complex will be the falling domino that leads to the fall of the rest of the districts,” said Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi expert who advises the government on Isis.

The expected loss of Ramadi would be the latest in a series of defeats for Isis in recent months in both Iraq and Syria, which has prompted the group’s leader and self-proclaimed caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, to issue a rare audio recording meant to reassure his followers.

In November Isis lost the city of Sinjar, the ancestral homeland of the Yazidi minority, to an offensive led by the Kurdish peshmerga and backed by US warplanes. Kurdish forces are also working to sever the militants’ supply lines between Syria and Iraq.

Meanwhile, across the border, Kurdish paramilitaries have conquered large swaths of northern Syria from the terror group, drawing closer to their de facto capital of Raqqa.

The militants have not been completely ousted from Ramadi, however, and they still hold Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province in the north, a battle that has been repeatedly delayed.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Iraqi forces in Ramadi’s from Daesh terrorist continue in al-Hoz district Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty

General Ismail al-Mahlawi, head of the Anbar military operations, told AP that the advance had been hampered by suicide bombers, snipers and booby traps.

Ramadi carries crucial symbolic value. Anbar was once the scene of the “Sunni Awakening” campaign during the US occupation, which recruited local Sunnis to fight against al-Qaida in Iraq, the precursor of Isis.



The fall of the province’s capital to the militants was a sign of how far Iraq’s unravelling as a nation state had come since the overthrow in 2003 of Saddam Hussein’s regime.

The fighting in Anbar has displaced millions of Iraqis, with many others still trapped within the city, risking their use as human shields by Isis fighters who have repeatedly called on them to remain within the caliphate’s borders.

