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Baghdad • Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes drove Islamic State (IS) militants out of the center of Ramadi on Monday and seized the main government complex, according to military officials, who said insurgents are still dug into pockets of the city west of Baghdad.
Ramadi, the provincial capital of the Anbar province, fell to IS in May, marking a major setback for Iraqi forces and the U.S.-led campaign. Ramadi and nearby Fallujah, which is controlled by IS, saw some of the heaviest fighting of the eight-year U.S. war in Iraq.
In recent months Iraqi forces launched several offensives to retake Ramadi, but all had stalled. Iraqi troops began advancing into some parts of the city, about 80 miles west of Baghdad, earlier this month. But their progress was slowed by snipers, booby traps and the militants' destruction of bridges leading into the city center.
Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Belawi told The Associated Press that IS militants stopped firing from inside the government complex at around 8 a.m. Monday and said troops were encircling it as engineering teams cleared booby traps.
A few hours later, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool announced in a televised statement that Ramadi had been "fully liberated."
But Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, head of military operations in Anbar, quickly clarified that Iraqi forces had only retaken the government complex and that parts of the city remained under IS control. He said IS fighters still control 30 percent of Ramadi and that government forces do not fully control many districts from which IS fighters have retreated.
"We can't say that Ramadi is fully liberated. There are still neighborhoods under their control and there are still pockets of resistance," al-Mahlawi said.
Iraqi state TV showed troops, some waving Iraqi flags and others brandishing machine guns, chanting and dancing inside what it described as the government complex. Soldiers could be seen slaughtering sheep in celebration near heavily damaged buildings.
Col. Steve Warren, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said the U.S.-led coalition has carried out more than 630 airstrikes, in addition to training security forces and providing advice and equipment to clear booby traps.
An Iraqi military officer said the militants had retreated from the government complex to other parts of the city.
"We were totally surprised today," the officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We didn't expect them to retreat from a number of Ramadi areas today, where we entered without any resistance, as if they evaporated," he said.
Al-Belawi said the fighters retreated mainly to the eastern neighborhoods of Sijariya and Sufiya. Authorities did not provide casualty figures from the fighting.
The recapture of the government complex should lift the morale of Iraqi forces, who were badly shaken by the fall of the city in May, which came despite months of U.S.-led airstrikes and advances against IS elsewhere in the country.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi hailed the advance, saying it had killed "hundreds" of militants and "fulfilled the promise to defeat Daesh in Ramadi," referring to the IS by its Arabic acronym. He said 2016 would be "the year of the final victory and the end of the existence of Daesh on Iraqi territory."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Iraqi forces for "displaying tremendous perseverance and courage."
"While Ramadi is not yet fully secure and additional parts of the city still must be retaken, Iraq's national flag now flies above the provincial government center, and enemy forces have suffered a major defeat," he said in a statement. IS still controls much of northern and western Iraq, as well as vast swaths of neighboring Syria.