According to the officials, in a separate attacks, a vehicle bomb in Iraqi city of Karbala killed at least 10 civilians and wounded 26 others on Tuesday. “We’re watching carefully the humanitarian situation inside Fallujah”.
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And now the United Nations says if they do get away, they face the possibility “severe physical abuse” and even summary execution at the hands of armed groups allied with the Iraqi government.
Cutting off Manbij from Raqqa will also bolster “shaping operations” in and around the Islamic State’s so-called capital by USA -supported Syrian units, said Col. Garver.
An Iraqi medical source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Daesh fighters have ordered Fallujah residents aged between 16 and 50 to give blood, threatening them with 60 lashes if they don’t.
In turn, they say, government-aligned Shiite militiamen have seized and severely beaten men fleeing Fallujah and neighboring areas. He said. “We can’t confirm the reports but they seem to be credible”.
On Wednesday evening, the prime minister visited the recently retaken territory.
The coalition is also not sure how many Iraqi civilians are trapped in the city.
New York Times correspondent Tim Arango wrote last week that United Nations officials are extremely anxious about the fate of the 50,000 Sunnis who are trapped in the city.
‘We have underestimated how many civilians are in Fallujah, ‘ Grande said.
“It’s very hard to kind of figure out inside a city who is a fighter, who is a civilian, especially when they’re hiding inside buildings and operating out of urban area”, he added.
“A number of them unfortunately didn’t make it”. But since then, no further supplies have made it in, they said. “Most of the screened civilians are back with their families”.
“I saw three children being put in an open refrigerator so they could cross the river, but it sank and one of the children, a little girl, couldn’t be saved so she died”, a 45-year-old survivor told the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“We know that there is external plotting conducted from Manbij City, not just Raqqa” Mr. Carter told reporters en route to security talks with Asian allies in Singapore.
“Iraqi forces are positioning to move forward”, said Col. Christopher Garver.
A security source told Xinhua that the troops made a new progress in the morning when dozens of Humvees and armored vehicles entered part of al-Shuhada district in southern Fallujah, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, amid fierce clashes with IS militants and air strikes of USA -led coalition aircraft.
This “new phase” of Islamic State operations could include “elevating the role of its affiliates, moving funds out of conflict areas and increasing the risk of complex, multiwave and global attacks” in the West, particularly in Europe, Mr. Feltman said.
“Our forces have begun in the early hours of the morning progressing in al-Shuhada”, a southern neighborhood of Falluja, Sabah al-Numani, a spokesman of the Counter-Terrorism Service, said.
With Iraqi forces focused on Fallujah, Syria’s military is pressing on toward Raqqa, the extremist group’s declared capital. Several people have drowned in the Euphrates trying to flee the city.
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Indeed, thousands of Iraqis in Fallujah are in danger.
