Iraqi forces entered the centre of Fallujah, the Iraqi city longest held by the so-called Islamic State, nearly four weeks after the start of a US-backed offensive that cleared out the tens of thousands of residents still there.
Government troops, supported by multiple air strikes from a US-led coalition, recaptured the municipal building, though militants still controlled a significant portion of Fallujah, an hour's drive west of Baghdad, and many streets and houses remain mined with explosives.
Federal police raised the Iraqi state flag above the government building and continued pursuing insurgents, according to a military statement.
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Iraqi forces had taken back a portion of the city, although he added: "There's still some fighting to be done."
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory shortly after nightfall, as government forces continued pushing into parts of the city held by the militants.
Security forces have "tightened their control inside the city and there are still some pockets that need to be cleansed in the coming hours," he said in a brief speech on state television.
Troops could be seen coming under sniper fire earlier in the day as they entered a large mosque about 100 metres from the municipal building.
Clashes also involved gun fire, artillery and aerial bombardment, sending clouds of smoke towards the sky above the city centre.
Heavily armed Interior Ministry police units were advancing along Baghdad Street, the main east-west road running through the city, and commandos from the counter-terrorism service (CTS) had surrounded Fallujah hospital, the military statement said.
A CTS spokesman, said on state television that snipers were holed up inside the main hospital.
Iraq launched a major operation on 23 May to retake Fallujah,a bastion of the Sunni Muslim insurgency against US forces that toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003, and Shia-led governments that followed.
