Iraq's PM hails key victory in Ramadi, vows to free Mosul from IS

A member of the Iraqi security forces gestures at a government complex in the city of Ramadi, December 28, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Monday hailed the liberation of the city of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western province of Anbar, from the Islamic State (IS) militant group and pledged to liberate the northern city of Mosul.

In his address on the nation, Abadi congratulated the Iraqi people for the recapture of Ramadi, some 110 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, and said that "every Iraqi city will come back to our homeland."

"I confirm to you (Iraqis) and the whole world that if not we were acting carefully to protect the safety of the families besieged in Ramadi, we would have completed the liberation before this date a long time ago," Abadi said in his speech broadcast by the state-run Iraqiya channel.

The IS militants "have booby-trapped schools, mosques, hospitals, streets and everything to impede the arrival of the brave (soldiers), still it (IS) failed and defeated after the killing of hundreds of its criminals and terrorists," Abadi said.

Abadi also said "if 2015 was the year of liberation, by God willing 2015 would be the year of the final victory, and the year of ending the presence of Daaesh (IS in Arabic) on the land of Iraq."

He said that the IS group has shed blood, beheaded and displaced people, "it (IS) is enemy of all humanity, and the world must unite and not tolerate one moment with extremist ideology because it is the basis of terrorism."

Earlier in the day, an Iraqi military statement declared key victory on the IS group in Ramadi.