Kasım İleri,Mahmoud Barakat
29 December 2015•Update: 31 December 2015
ANBAR, Iraq
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi arrived in Ramadi on Tuesday, a day after Iraqi forces recaptured the city from Daesh.
General Sami al-Aardi, an Iraqi counterterrorism military officer, told Anadolu Agency that al-Abadi visited Ramadi to review the security operations in the city.
Over the weekend, al-Abadi had vowed that 2016 would be the year of “final victory” against Daesh in Iraq, saying the next battle against the militant group would be in Mosul, Daesh’s stronghold.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obaidi said Tuesday that 80 percent of Ramadi was destroyed in clashes between Iraqi forces and Daesh.
Iraq has plunged into a security vacuum since June 2014 when Daesh stormed Mosul and declared what it called a caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Anti-Daesh coalition spokesman Col. Steve Warren, who briefed reporters on the Ramadi offensive, said U.S. ground forces were not used in the operation.
“The only U.S. involvement in the fight for Ramadi has been the delivery of air power and the training of Iraqi soldiers and advising and assisting the Iraqi Security Forces from their headquarters,” he said.
Iraqi forces sustained casualty numbers in the low double digits, according to Warren, who said Ramadi is not yet completely cleared of militants and that the group is still resisting in the eastern parts of the capital.
He declined to provide civilian casualties numbers and the condition of civilians in the city.
