Sunnis view this US-backed campaign as an exercise in ethnic cleansing created to expel them from Iraq.
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The Iraqi government push to regain control of the city is expected to be one of the biggest battles fought against IS militants so far.
Unconfirmed reports say IS used six explosive-laden cars in an attempt to slow the progress of the Iraqi military, but none reached their targets.
Special forces enter “second phase” in fight to recapture central city from ISIL, as 50,000 people remain trapped.
Militiamen have plastered artillery shells with the name of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shiite cleric close to Iran whose execution this year by Saudi Arabia – a Sunni power – could deepen the region’s sectarian divide, before firing them at the terrorist group fighters in Fallujah. As ISIS loses territory in both Iraq and Syria, analysts say the militants may be shifting tactics to increase the human costs of any military victory by the forces that oppose the terror group. “But only when they can sort out their political differences”.
“Scores of Daesh militants raided the homes of local residents, abducted about 100 young people and whisked them off to unknown locations”, Sheikh Majid al-Jerisi, a local tribal chief, told Anadolu Agency by phone. The city, which witnessed two fierce battles against US troops in 2003 and 2004, has long opposed the successive Shiite-dominated governments in Baghdad.
One Twitter user, who claimed to be the “official spokesperson for the Sunni Popular Mobilisation of Iraq” tweeted at the beginning of the assault, apparently reflecting the fears of the Sunni inhabitants of Fallujah.
Hundreds, mostly women and children, fled Falluja on Friday as Iraqi soldiers attacked to drive ISIS from the city, the Iraqi military said.
Thousands of civilians have escaped IS-controlled areas since the start of the operation to retake the city on May 22-23 but almost all of them were from outlying areas.
Meanwhile, the danger for innocent people caught in the middle intensifies.
The cost of this liberation is high not only politically but also materially and socially.
“The last two days have shown they intend to put up a fight” not seen in recent operations to retake the key cities of Hit and Rutba in Anbar province from Islamic State control, Capt. Davis said.
US participation in the assault on Fallujah does not make sense.
[Image by Rwa Faisal / AP Photo]Shiite clerics are also sending the message that Fallujah is full of terrorists and sympathizers, to say that there are no innocent Sunni civilians there at all.
“The policy in Iraq seems to be ‘IS first, then Iraq”, he said.
UNHCR staff distribute emergency aid to newly-displaced families from Falluja at al-Iraq camp, Ameriyat Al-Fallujah, Anbar, Iraq.
Earlier in March, the Ninevah Provincial Council took the decision to oppose the deployment of PMUs in the province – of which Mosul is the capital – in order to “deny IS the opportunity to exploit the PMUs’ participation in order to recruit the people of Nineveh in its ranks”, referring to the militias’ potential to alienate Sunnis. He offered no details on casualties on the Iraqi military side. In one widely-circulated video, Aws al-Khafaji, the head of the Abu Fadhil al-Abbas militia group, denounces Fallujah as a stronghold of terrorism.
“The stories coming out of Fallujah are horrifying”, said Nasr Muflahi, NRC’s Country Director in Iraq. The authority of the prime minister, Haidar al-Abadi, had also been weakened by two mass protests that had breached the country’s seat of government.
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“This will not be without cost”, said Lt. Col. Rick Francona, another CNN military analyst.
