Today, 10 months after Iraq’s Shiite-led government proclaimed Ramadi liberated, parts of the city remain unlivable because of bombs and other dangerous remnants of war ensconced in the rubble or deliberately placed in vacant schools, homes and hospitals. The Iraqi prime minister’s office estimated that 90 percent of Ramadi was contaminated with explosives when the Islamic State was defeated. The United Nations has estimated the cost of decontamination to be as much as $200 million, but others call this estimate unrealistically low. Rebuilding costs are estimated in the billions.

Lise Grande, the top United Nations humanitarian aid coordinator in Iraq, said about 300,000 people had returned to Ramadi, but basic services had not been fully restored. Bickering between Sunni factions in the city and efforts to remove the provincial governor from his post have slowed rebuilding.

Officials at the State Department’s Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, which has overseen American efforts to help decontaminate Iraq of explosives, said the priority in Ramadi has been to clear explosive remnants of war, known as ERW, from schools, hospitals and critical facilities like water treatment plants.

Despite some progress, State Department officials said it would be premature to describe Ramadi as returning to normal.

“To clear Ramadi of every piece of ERW, you’re talking about a yearslong effort, hundreds of millions of dollars, well beyond what we have,” said Jerry Guilbert, the office’s deputy director for programs.