Military video shows Iraqi army rescuing over 20 soldiers stranded in Isis-controlled Ramadi

Isis took control of the city, just 70 miles from Baghdad, at the weekend

(ITN)

Aerial footage released by the Iraqi army shows the moment over 20 stranded soldiers were rescued from the city of Ramadi after it had fallen under the control of Isis forces.

The loss of Ramadi, which lies just 70 miles west of the capital, Baghdad, marks one of the Iraqi military's worst disasters since it lost the north of the country to an Isis advance last year.

With one local councillor calling the fall of the city a "total collapse", videos from the city have shown a chaotic retreat by the Iraqi army.

Now, footage shows a search and rescue operation that took place following the military retreat, with the Iraqi army managing to rescue over 20 soldiers in Ramadi.

Around 25,000 people who lived in Ramadi have fled, though they have had difficulty getting past army and militia checkpoints in Baghdad where displaced Sunni are suspected of being Isis sympathisers.

The Baghdad government now has little choice but to deploy the Hashd Shaabi, the Shia paramilitaries which the US sees as being under Iranian influence.