BAGHDAD // Iraq’s defence minister predicted on Saturday 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.
ISIL took full control of Ramadi in mid-May, in what was Baghdad’s most stinging defeat since it launched a counter-offensive to regain large regions captured by the extremists in the summer of 2014.
“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,” said defence minister Khaled Al Obeidi.
Earlier this month, forces led by Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism service retook Al Tameem – a southwestern neighbourhood of Ramadi – from ISIL.
The offensive in Al Tameem this month marked a significant step in long-delayed efforts to recapture the city.
“The reason the battle took so long was to avoid casualties among our forces and also to avoid civilian casualties,” Mr Al 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.
ISIL fighters attacking from north-west 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, said on Friday.
He said ISIL had been using the Euphrates river that runs through Ramadi to supply its fighters inside the city with men and military equipment.
Also on Saturday, Mr Al Obeidi said Iraq had opened an investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of 10 Iraqi soldiers in a coalition air raid west of Baghdad.
The US military said it was likely the first “friendly fire” incident involving the coalition since the war against ISIL was launched last year.
The Joint Operations Command said on Friday that 10 soldiers had been “wounded or killed” but Mr Al Obeidi and another senior military source clarified on Saturday that 10 troops had been killed.
According to the joint command, the incident occurred when two coalition strikes allowed Iraqi ground forces to advance rapidly towards positions held by ISIL fighters south of their stronghold of Fallujah.
A third air raid struck when the two sides were in close combat, resulting in casualties to both, it said.
The US military acknowledged a coalition strike may have caused casualties among the ranks of the Iraqi security forces it supports in Fallujah and elsewhere in the country.
“Despite coordination with the Iraqi security forces on the ground, initial reports indicate the possibility one of the strikes resulted in the death of Iraqi soldiers,” a statement said on Friday.
It said the US military would launch its own investigation into the incident.
“We will conduct a thorough investigation and express deepest condolences for any loss of life among brave Iraqi soldiers fighting ISIL,” said top US envoy to the coalition, Brett McGurk.
US defence secretary Ashton Carter, who was in Iraq the day before the incident, called prime minister Haider Al Abadi to extend his condolences.
On Saturday, Mr Carter visited France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier in the Arabian Gulf where it is being used to launch strikes on ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq.
It was the first visit by a US Pentagon chief to the French flagship aircraft carrier, which is at the heart of a stepped-up air campaign against the militants in Syria and Iraq.
Mr Carter, who visited Afghanistan on Friday and will fly to Moscow on Sunday for talks on Syria, was greeted on the deck by France’s junior minister for veterans, Jean-Marc Todeschini.
His French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, was unable to be there but the two spoke by phone during the visit.
France began bombing extremist targets in Syria in late September, with planes using bases in the region.
But the carrier was only deployed last month after president Francois Hollande declared “war” on ISIL following the November 13 attacks on Paris which killed 130 people.
Initially deployed to the eastern Mediterranean, the vessel – which has 26 fighter jets – moved to the Gulf earlier this month to relieve a US carrier. It will be joined in January by the first of a new generation of frigates.
* Agence France-Presse
