Iraqi forces recapture Ramadi from Islamic State

Iraqi forces yesterday took control of the government complex in central Ramadi, the last Islamic State stronghold in the western city, a military spokesman said.

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

“The complex is under our complete control, there is no presence whatsoever of Daesh fighters in the complex,” he told Reuters, using a derogatory Arabic acronym of Islamic State.

Recapturing Ramadi, which fell to the militants in May, would be one of the most significant victories for Iraq’s armed forces since Islamic State swept across a third of the country in 2014.

The militants “seem to have fled the complex, we’re not encountering any resistance,” said Sabah al-Numani. “We’re seeing lots of Daesh bodies, killed in the air strikes on the compound,” he told Reuters.

The Iraqi forces are backed by air support from an international coalition led by the United States.

Shi’ite militias backed by Iran, which have played a major role in other offensives against Islamic State, have been kept away by the Iraqi government from the battlefield in Ramadi to avoid sectarian tensions.

If the offensive in Ramadi succeeds, it will be the second main city to be retaken from Islamic State after Tikrit, in April. Officials said it would be handed over to the local police and to a Sunni tribal force once secured.

After Ramadi, the army plans to move to retake the northern city of Mosul, the biggest population centre under Islamic State control in Iraq and Syria.

Dislodging the militants from Mosul, which had a pre-war population close to 2 million, would effectively abolish their state structure in Iraq and deprive them of a major source of funding, which comes partly from oil and partly from fees and taxes on residents.

Elsewhere, Syrian government forces booby trapped a cluster of farm buildings in the southern Daraa province and detonated the explosives as several Islamic rebel factions gathered there, killing 17 militants, opposition activists said yesterday.

The explosion, which took place late Saturday, was the latest blow to the rebels shortly after the assassination on Friday of a powerful rebel leader on the outskirts of Damascus. The developments could boost the position of the Damascus government ahead of Syria peace talks in Geneva next month.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported the explosion in the village of Kfar Shams. Ahmad al-Masalmeh, a Daraa-based opposition activist, said explosives were planted at the farm and detonated once the militants had gathered there.