If IS lost Fallujah, they’d be pushed back to their “capital”, Mosul.
Advertisement
The major city center is considered to be the ISIS stronghold in the western province of Anbar.
“Fallujah is extremely important to IS; it was the first city to be seized by the organization and the base from which it began its violent escapades into the region”. The U.S.-led coalition has hit the city with constant airstrikes for the past four days, and Maher Al-Bilawi, the commander of the ISIS forces in the city, was among 70 terrorists killed. In 2004, US troops fought in two successive Fallujah offensives against Sunni insurgents, a mix of local and foreign fighters, in some of the fiercest street battles that followed the USA invasion against Saddam Hussein.
“Phase one is over and we have achieved our objectives”, Brigadier Rasool Yahya said. The city of Ramadi, a symbol of resistance against American forces just a decade ago, was recaptured from IS in a mere month.
An estimated 50,000 civilians remained trapped in Fallujah city however as well as twice that number along Syria’s border with Turkey as a result of an IS sweep near Aleppo.
Hashed al-Shaabi forces (“Population Mobilization” in Arabic), as well as army and police forces have so far focused on areas east of Fallujah, without entering the city itself.
Around 350,000 civilians live in and around the sprawling city on the Euphrates River, which has been occupied by ISIS since January of 2014. “We understand that completely and we accept it, and we’re providing devastating air power in support of the decision that the prime minister of Iraq made to liberate Fallujah”.
Hundreds of families were able to flee the city on Friday with the help of government forces, but the majority remain trapped, aid groups said. ‘It has become one of the world’s largest prisons, ‘ said Issa al-Issawi, the exiled mayor of Fallujah. “They know it makes it harder for us”.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said the fighting had encircled some 13,500 people in the town.
“Isil is escalating its violence as its reign over Fallujah reaches a bloody denouement”.
Meanwhile, the security forces retook control of Albu Shejil area in west of Fallujah, after fierce clashes with IS militants, leaving at least 20 IS militants killed and five IS vehicles destroyed, the source said.
The deployment of Iraq’s best-trained and most battle-tested unit came as US-backed forces pressed simultaneous offensives against ISIS in both Iraq and Syria.
“Our troops are now in the process of surrounding the city from all (sides)”, said Lt. General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, the head of the counterterrorism forces’ Fallujah operation.
Advertisement
Maj. Dhia Thamir, of the Special Forces Service, says the last battalion arrived at dawn Sunday at the sprawling Tariq Camp outside Fallujah.
