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Iraq’s prime minister in Ramadi to hail liberation from Daesh

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi walks with his security detail in the city of Ramadi, December 29, 2015. (Reuters Photo)

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is in Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, to hail the liberation of the strategic city from the grips of the Daesh Takfiri terrorists.

Security sources said on Tuesday that Abadi arrived by helicopter at the Anbar University complex in Ramadi’s southern outskirts, one day after the Iraqi forces hoisted the national flag above the city’s main government complex.

Iraqis celebrated the victory on Monday and said Ramadi, which fell into the hands of Daesh in May, was fully recaptured. However, later statements showed that some neighborhoods were still to be cleared.

Brigadier General Ahmed al-Belawi, an Iraqi military commander, said that Abadi kicked off the visit by meeting security and provincial officials for the latest updates.

Across the city meanwhile, military engineering teams were clearing bombs from the streets and nearby buildings, al-Belawi said, even as sporadic clashes were underway in outlying parts of the city.

Iraqis drive vehicles on December 29, 2015, through the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, west of Baghdad, after Iraqi forces recaptured the city from Daesh. (AFP photo)

Abadi on Monday said the liberation of Ramadi was a great victory and it prepared the ground for the Iraqi forces to engage in the final push against Daesh and expel them from Mosul, the largest city Daesh controls in northern Iraq.

Abadi said the year “2016 will be the year of the big and final victory, when Daesh's presence in Iraq will be terminated.”

Also on Tuesday, Iraqis said they had detained in Ramadi one of the major leaders of Daesh hours after the city was recaptured. The sources said the unidentified man, who used to serve as the finance chief of Daesh, was trying to escape the city when Iraqi forces spotted him among more than 400 citizens of Ramadi who were being evacuated.

According to reports, Iraqi forces also early on Tuesday managed to kill a senior commander of Daesh in Mosul with reports saying that Tahsin Wasiq Hashim was in his house in the city’s al-Maliyah neighborhood when Iraqi warplanes pounded the area.

The Iraqi forces have already managed to liberate some key towns and villages from Daesh including Tikrit and Baiji in Salahuddin Province.


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