Iraq’s Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi speaks during a news conference in Baghdad yesterday.
AFP
Baghdad
Iraq’s defence minister predicted yesterday that security forces backed by US-led coalition air strikes would retake full control of the city of Ramadi by the end of the year.
“I met with the Joint Operations Command and they confirmed to me that we will regain all of the city of Ramadi by the end of this month,” Khaled al-Obeidi told reporters in Baghdad.
Earlier this month, forces led by Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism service retook Al Tameem, a southwestern neighbourhood of Ramadi, from the Islamic State group.
IS took full control of Ramadi in mid-May, in what was Baghdad’s most stinging defeat since it launched a counter-offensive to regain the large regions the militants captured in the summer of 2014.
The offensive in Al Tameem this month marked a significant step in long-delayed efforts to recapture the city, around 100km west of Baghdad and capital of the vast province of Anbar.
“The reason the battle took so long was to avoid casualties among our forces and also to avoid civilian casualties,” Obeidi said. “There are still many civilians in the city.”
Militants still holed up in the city centre and using tunnels to avoid air strikes may number no more than 300, according to military officials. IS fighters attacking from northwest of Ramadi with suicide car bombs attempted to retake control of the key Palestine bridge in recent days but Iraqi forces still have the upper hand.
“The city of Ramadi has now been fully isolated, and the Iraqi security forces are beginning to conduct their clearing operations,” the coalition’s Baghdad-based spokesman, Colonel Steve Warren, told reporters on Friday.
He said that IS had been using the Euphrates river that runs through Ramadi to supply its fighters inside the city with men and military equipment.
Control of both sides of the river banks in key areas has significantly reduced the militant organisation’s ability to resupply, Warren said.
The defence minister also said yesterday Iraq has opened an investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of 10 Iraqi soldiers in a coalition air strike west of Baghdad.
“We lost 10 of our soldiers,” Obeidi said, adding that “an investigation into the incident was opened.”
A statement from the Joint Operations Command on Friday mentioned that 10 had been “wounded or killed” but Obeidi and another senior military source clarified yesterday that 10 troops were killed.
According to the joint command, the incident occurred when two coalition strikes allowed Iraqi ground forces to advance rapidly towards positions held by IS fighters south of their stronghold of Fallujah.
A third air strike came when the two sides were in close combat, resulting in casualties to both, it said.
