On Monday, Iraq's military claimed victory in its week-long siege of Ramadi, the strategically important capital of Anbar province located a short 60 miles from Baghdad, saying it has driven the Islamic State from the central government compound and most of the rest of the city. "Yes, Ramadi city has been liberated and security forces, like the heroes of the counter-terrorism forces, flew the Iraqi flag over the government compound building in Anbar," Iraq's Joint Operations Command said on live television.
An Iraqi military spokesman, Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, first said that security forces had "fully liberated" Ramadi, but Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, military commander in Anbar, quickly clarified that ISIS still has pockets of fighters in about 30 percent of the city, especially its eastern suburbs. The Iraqi military's victory in central Ramadi, aided by Sunni tribesmen and U.S. airstrikes, is the biggest in a recent string of losses for ISIS in Iraq, including Bejii and Sinjar. But as BBC News notes in the video below, the victory comes at a steep cost for Ramadi, much of which is destroyed. Peter Weber
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