Elite Iraqi counter-terrorism units, backed up by army troops and US-led coalition airstrikes, retook the city of Ramadi on Sunday, outgunning and outnumbering Islamic State (ISIS) fighters holed up in a government complex in the city center, their last bastion.
An Iraqi commander told The Associated Press Islamic State fighters put up “a tough fight,”
slowing his forces progress, but by the end of the day the last ISIS troops had fled Anbar province’s capital, which they had dramatically captured in May.
The head of the Anbar military operations, Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, told the AP the Iraqi advance had been hampered by suicide bombers, snipers and booby traps.
Al-Mahlawi confirm nor deny the many media reporting IS fighters had pulled out of the central government complex as night fell, but he quoted area residents telling his fighters IS militants had withdrawn from the adjacent neighborhood of Albu Alwan.
Militants were said to have fled east from the western provincial capital, located about 60 miles west of Baghdad, taking families and civilian hostages. The contested province borders Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
Iraqi troops backed by US-led have fought their way back into Ramadi for the past three weeks, working towards a victory that will help boost Iraq’s military, which collapsed when ISIS took over large parts of the country in June 2014.
A senior officer from Iraq’s 8th army division told Agence France Press the latest round of fighting left several ISIS militants dead, adding that “seven of our forces were also wounded in these clashes and as a result of the explosion of mines.”
Other reports held that at least five members of Iraqi military were killed since Friday, when combat intensified. Iraqi military sources reported that over 50 militants were killed over the weekend.