BAGHDAD -- Iraqi forces said Monday they had seized a strategic government complex in the western city of Ramadi from the Islamic State after a fierce weeklong battle, putting them on the verge of a crucial victory following a brutal seven-month occupation of the city by the extremist group.
The loss of Ramadi, the capital and most populous city of the western Iraqi province of Anbar, would be the most significant in a string of recent defeats for the Islamic State, which has occupied a large stretch of Iraq and Syria since the middle of last year.
"The security forces have entered the governmental buildings and raised the Iraqi flags over them after killing many ISIS militants, and the rest have escaped," said Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, a spokesman for the Iraqi military.
Although he declared the city "fully liberated," another military commander, Maj. Gen. Ismail al-Mahlawi, later said that pockets of resistance remained in about 30 percent of the city, and on Twitter, supporters of the Islamic State were dismissive of the reports that Ramadi was about to fall.
Heavy fighting was reported in the downtown neighborhood of Huz, as well as in the communities of Sajariya and Sufiya, on the eastern outskirts of the city, and Albu Ghanim, to the north. Islamic State fighters captured those villages in April before advancing on the center of Ramadi.
Nonetheless, the seizure of the government complex — the last major redoubt of Islamic State fighters in Ramadi — was a strategic and symbolic victory after days of fighting.
The remaining fighters from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, fled the government compound around midday, having been encircled by Iraqi counterterrorism forces and police officers, backed by Sunni tribesmen who oppose the militant group and by American airstrikes.
Bassem Eid Ammash, a spokesman for the Anbar provincial council, said in a phone interview that troops had been careful about entering the government complex, to minimize losses.
"We are trying to remove all the IEDs and explosives before entering the governmental compound," he said, referring to improvised explosive devices.
Mazin al-Dulaimi, a police commander involved with the Anbar offensive, acknowledged by telephone that "there is difficulty in breaking into the governmental compound because a number of suicide bombers and snipers are still inside the compound."
He said intercepted wireless communications suggested the snipers in the government complex had been trying to obstruct the Iraqi forces' advance, to facilitate the escape of fellow militants.
Although it was premature to declare a total victory, the momentum of the battle clearly seemed to be on the side of the Iraqis.
"The clearance of the government center is a significant accomplishment and is the result of many months of hard work by the Iraqi Army, the Counterterrorism Service, the Iraqi Air Force, local and federal police, and tribal fighters," Col. Steven H. Warren, the U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, said in a statement. "Today's success is a proud moment for Iraq."
Ramadi has been one of the most significant cities under the extremist group's control, along with its self-proclaimed capital of Raqqa, Syria; the northern Iraqi city of Mosul; and the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which sits between Ramadi and the capital, Baghdad, nearly 60 miles to the east.
Reasserting control over Ramadi would allow Iraq to cut off supply lines to Fallujah and would make it very difficult for the Islamic State to continue to hold that city.
It would also give a much-needed lift to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who leads Iraq's Shiite-dominated government but has tried to reach out to the country's large Sunni minority. Abadi's predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki, thoroughly alienated the Sunni community.
On Monday, Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Belawi, the leader of a battalion of tribal fighters, told The Associated Press that the militants stopped returning fire from inside the Ramadi government compound around 8 a.m. "We believe that they were either killed or fled," he said.
On Thursday, the Islamic State released a flurry of statements saying it had killed at least 30 members of the Iraqi government forces, perhaps in an attempt to bolster morale.
Warren said the Iraqi forces had been "supported by over 600 coalition airstrikes since July."
On Sunday alone, he said, coalition planes launched three airstrikes over Ramadi, hitting 18 targets.
Falih Hassan reported from Baghdad, and Sewell Chan from London. Kareem Fahim contributed reporting from Cairo.