The Iraqi military has said it still has work to do defeating Isis in Ramadi as it retracted claims it had liberated the embattled capital of Anbar province from the militants.
Gen Ismail al-Mahlawi, head of military operations in Anbar, confirmed that government forces had retaken a strategic government complex but significant parts of the city remained under Isis control.
He said the militants had retreated from about 70% of the city, but still controlled the rest, and government forces were not fully in control of many of the districts from which Isis had retreated.
News of progress in the battle came as the British military said it had conducted airstrikes to aid the advance into the Sunni heartland city, which was conquered by Isis last summer and is now besieged by the Iraqi army.
A spokesman for the UK’s Royal Air Force said armed reconnaissance missions by Tornado and Typhoon jets as well as drones had destroyed targets including large groups of terrorists fighting Iraqi government forces.
A number of successful strikes were also carried out near the city of Mosul and in support of the Kurdish paramilitary, the peshmerga, in close combat with Islamic State fighters in the north of the country, the Ministry of Defence said.
Iraqi troops took control of the government complex in Ramadi, officials claimed on Sunday, drawing closer to ousting the militants from the western Iraqi city.
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