Jawdat added that some 40 Daesh militants had been killed so far in ongoing operations to retake Fallujah, in which medium and heavy weapons were being employed.
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Saad al-Hadithi, a spokesman for Abadi, said the city’s “liberation” would help restore normal life to Anbar province, over which Islamic State took almost complete control in 2014. Two offensives by USA forces against al Qaeda insurgents in Fallujah in 2004 each lasted about a month and wrecked significant portions of the city.
Iraqi forces backed by USA warplanes advanced on Islamic State fighters in Fallujah on Monday, commanders and officials said, in the opening salvo of a fresh offensive to retake the militant-held city where almost 100 Americans died in the early years of the Iraq War.
He spoke the day after the government said it recaptured the district of Garma, about 10 miles northeast of Fallujah.
United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric said there is “a great risk” to about 50,000 civilians estimated by the U.N.to still be in Fallujah, underlining the necessity of having “some safe corridors that they could use”. ISIS has proven to be a formidable foe, and every victory over the group has come at a high cost.
Iraqi pro-government fighters take part in an operation in al-Shahabi, east of the city of Fallujah, on Tuesday.
The Norwegian Refugee Council, an aid group working with refugees and the displaced in Iraq, reported that only 17 families has fled Fallujah since Sunday night and that most had fled from the city’s outskirts.
In a nod to local sensitivities, Iraqi officials say Shi’ite militias, grouped under a loose government umbrella to help boost the army and police following partial collapses since 2014, would be restricted to operating outside the city limits.
Since August, Fallujah has been under siege by government troops, who have prevented the entry of food and medicine into the city.
Fallujah is not new to tragedy, as it famously saw the worst of the fighting in Iraq during the American occupation years of the last decade. Italian advisers are also providing remote support to the federal police, police officials said. “Those forces have already begun to move on the city where they’re encountering some resistance”, said Davis.
But Islamic State still controls vast swathes of territory and major cities such as Mosul in the north. The U.S. -led coalition has struck targets around Fallujah in recent days.
On Sunday, government forces launched a large-scale offensive, teaming up with paramilitary troops and backed by aerial support from the USA -led coalition.
The anti-ISIS coalition headed by Washington has set its sights on Raqa in Syria, as well as Fallujah – and eventually ISIS’s main bastion of Mosul – in Iraq. An array of fighters – including Shiite militias and counterterrorism forces – have announced they plan to take part in the Fallujah operation, but it’s unclear how command and control will be exercised over the disparate groups. Iraq’s commanders will be overseeing a mixture of government forces and Shiite militias attempting to expel the militants.
Al-Saadi said that once his counterterrorism forces are in place, they will push to the city center, and the other armed groups will hold the perimeter.
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Following recent government offensives in Rutba and Hit, control of Falluja would secure the road more than 500 kilometers from Baghdad to the Jordanian border and northwards to Haditha, 190 kilometers northwest of the capital.
