NEW YORK TIMES: Iraqi forces said on Monday they had seized a strategic government complex in the western city of Ramadi from the Islamic State after a fierce weeklong battle to retake it, following a brutal seven-month occupation by the extremist group.
“The security forces have entered the governmental buildings and raised the Iraqi flags over them after killing many ISIS militants, and the rest have escaped,” said Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, a spokesman for the Iraqi military.
Although he at first declared the city “fully liberated,” another military commander, Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, noted that pockets of resistance remained in about 30 percent of the city, particularly in the communities of Sajariya and Sufiya, on the eastern outskirts of the city, and Albu Ghanim, to the north. Islamic State fighters captured those villages in April before advancing on the center of Ramadi… (more)
EDITOR: Even more important, they did it, we didn’t. That is what the administration has been working towards.
