GOVERNMENT forces expected to dislodge Islamic State militants from the western Iraqi city of Ramadi within days, state television said yesterday, citing army chief of staff Lt. General Othman al-Ghanemi.

    If Ramadi is captured, it will be the second major city after Tikrit to be retaken from Islamic State in Iraq. It would provide a major psychological boost to Iraqi security forces after the militant group seized a third of Iraq, a major OPEC oil producer and U.S ally, last year. “In the coming days will be announced the good news of the complete liberation of Ramadi,” Iraqia TV cited the officer as saying.

    Iraq’s armed forces began advancing Tuesday on the last district held by the militants in the center of Ramadi, a Sunni Muslim city on the river Euphrates some 100 km west of Baghdad that they captured in May. Before the start of the attack, Iraqi intelligence estimated the number of Islamic State fighters entrenched in the center of Ramadi at between 250 and 300.

    Progress has been slow because the government wants to rely entirely on its own troops and not use Shiite militias in order to avoid rights abuses such as occurred after the recapture of the city of Tikrit from the militants in April.

    Islamic State also controls Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, and Falluja, which lies between Ramadi and Baghdad, as well as large areas of Syria — the core of what it has declared to be a caliphate. (SD-Agencies)