Army Col. Steve Warren portrays ISIL as losing momentum and the victory in Ramadi as a major milestone. | Getty As Ramadi falls, Pentagon says it is 'striking at the head of the snake'

Iraqi forces are now working to clear Ramadi after capturing the city from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, said a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, estimating that U.S. airstrikes have also taken out 10 key leaders of the terrorist group this month.

In a briefing Tuesday from Baghdad, Army Col. Steve Warren portrayed ISIL as losing momentum and the victory in Ramadi as a major milestone for President Barack Obama’s strategy of training and advising local forces to take on the terrorist network.


Of the ISIL leaders he said have been killed in coalition airstrikes in December, he noted that one had direct ties to the ringleaders of the November attacks in Paris.

“This organization is losing its leadership,” Warren said. “We’re striking at the head of the snake.”

He added that it was too soon to tell how long it would take to completely clear Ramadi, which ISIL forces seized in May, but said that remaining enemy forces there pose little threat.

“We have not seen this enemy be able to mass any type of real combat power,” he said.