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Iraqi declared victory against ISIS in the city of Ramadi a couple of weeks ago. But even if that is true in most of the city, clearing the last ISIS holdouts has been a bloody and exhausting task. NPR's Alice Fordham went to Ramadi, and she found that there is still heavy fighting, and civilians are running for their lives across enemy lines.
ALICE FORDHAM, BYLINE: It's early morning, and I'm heading into Ramadi with the Iraqi government counter-terror forces. The first thing that strikes me is the devastation after months of fighting.
As we get further in, the destruction is more complete. Most of the houses seem to have been hit by airstrikes - big buildings with roofs caved. The palm trees are - palm trees are destroyed. The walls are destroyed. Everything's kind of flattened.
And as we drive into the city center, it becomes clear the combat is still intense. Helicopters buzz overhead. They're passing every few minutes and laying down covering fire while warplanes for the U.S.-led coalition also launch attacks. We get to a place a few blocks from the front lines. There's a makeshift headquarters here. The special forces take me up to the roof.
From here, I can see a panorama of the city. The center of the city is not as badly damaged as the outside. But when I turn around and look a little bit toward the southeast, it's clear that the fighting is still going on. There's shelling from Iraqi army helicopters. There's coalition airstrikes, which are sending up huge clouds of smoke in the distance.
SGT. MAJ. RAED MOHAMMAD: (Foreign language spoken).
FORDHAM: Down on a street littered with shell casings, Sgt. Maj. Raed Mohammad tells me why there's still so much fighting in a city where victory was declared against ISIS weeks ago.
MOHAMMAD: (Foreign language spoken).
FORDHAM: He says, "we're having to use different tactics now because there's so many civilians in the remaining ISIS-held area." Earlier in the Ramadi battle, the Iraqi military, backed by coalition airstrikes, was able to push fast into largely depopulated streets. Now, the front line is relatively static. On one side of a city road are Iraqi forces. On the other is ISIS, with maybe a thousand families they've dragged along with them as they've withdrawn into this last holdout.
MOHAMMAD: (Foreign language spoken).
FORDHAM: "We're trying to rescue them," Mohammed says. Every day, hundreds of civilians come running across the front lines, dodging ISIS fire, waving white flags, trying to get to the security forces. Many die in the attempt or get injured. And we see some up the street. Outside one of the city's biggest mosques is an ambulance, stretchers, soldiers.
Standing outside the big mosque, and the soldiers are treating 1, 2, 3, 4 wounded children. They're putting iodine on their wounds. The kids are - they don't seem to be badly injured, except one little boy who's been hit in what looks like the base of his spine. They're obviously terrified.
When soldiers ask one little boy where he came from, he says they ran away from the ISIS-held area Sofia.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: (Foreign language spoken).
FORDHAM: But another family was with them, and they were hit by ISIS and didn't make it. I ask a 16-year-old who gives her name only as Jinan, how they escaped.
JINAN: (Foreign language spoken).
FORDHAM: She says ISIS said they'd shoot anyone who tried to leave. Today, an airstrike hit nearby, which is how the children were injured. But in the confusion, they all seized the chance to flee. Right now, hundreds of civilians are running always like this every day. The soldiers take them to the improvised base on the outskirts. They give medical aid, food and water and take the men away for questioning to see if they're involved with ISIS, leaving the women and children. At that base, I speak with Hashima Ibrahim, who tells me she escaped at dawn.
HASHIMA IBRAHIM: (Foreign language spoken).
FORDHAM: She ran two miles barefoot.
IBRAHIM: (Speaking foreign language).
FORDHAM: She says they've been drinking rainwater. Conditions in the city worsened dramatically during the seven months ISIS were in control, as security forces severed supply lines. Water, food and electricity supply have been cut off for three months.
IBRAHIM: (Foreign language spoken).
FORDHAM: ISIS moved them from place to place as Iraqi security forces pushed into the city. The extremists said come with us or we'll blow up your house. Most of Ramadi is indeed now held by Iraqi security forces. But with thousands trapped in that last pocket of ISIS control, victory doesn't seem quite complete. U. S. and Iraqi officials are already talking about pushing ISIS out of other cities - crowded cities where progress will be slow and where ordinary people will, once again, be on the frontlines. Alice Fordham, NPR News, Ramadi.