The expulsion of ISIS fighters from the Iraqi city of Ramadi is a morale-boosting victory for the Iraqi Security Forces after a thoroughly forgettable 2015, good news for beleaguered Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi -- and another sign that ISIS is stretched thin across its vast territory in Iraq and Syria. The recapture of central Ramadi -- occupied by ISIS seven months ago as Iraqi troops fled in disarray -- is also a sign that closer coordination between Iraqi forces on the ground and coalition airpower is having results, even in a crowded urban area. And it will diminish ISIS' ability to continue applying pressure on the capital, Baghdad. But ISIS is unlikely to vanish from the area. It still holds towns and villages to the north and east of Ramadi, and analysts expect its fighters to revert to insurgent tactics as they did around the city of Baiji earlier this year: suicide bombings, ambushes and tactical assaults. Iraqi officials believe ISIS units have melted into Ramadi's suburbs -- clearing and holding the city are two different challenges. A rare win for Iraqi army Most of the successes against ISIS in Iraq this year have been thanks to the Kurdish Peshmerga and Shiite militia. The Kurds have driven ISIS out of much of northern Nineveh province and last month captured the town of Sinjar, severing ISIS' main supply line into Mosul. Shiite militia, supplied and advised by Iran, were controversially in the lead when Tikrit was recaptured in March -- a fact ISIS exploited as it tried to highlight alleged atrocities against Sunni civilians. The Iraqi Security Force (ISF) played only a supporting role in Tikrit and Baiji, where Abadi was weakened by his reliance on militia not under his control. And in Ramadi the ISF evaporated as ISIS pressed its assault in the summer, leading U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter to say: "We have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight ISIL [ISIS] and defend themselves." The United States had already begun retraining Iraqi army brigades in the aftermath of a chaotic retreat from Mosul in June 2014. In June this year, U.S. authorities dispatched a further 450 military trainers to work with Sunni tribal militia, and greater attention was devoted to dealing with ISIS' use of IEDs and vehicle suicide bombs.
