It has been under the control of the militant group for longer than any other territory in Iraq, and the city has proven a complex target as IS has had more than two years to dig in and erect defensive positions.
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While a number of different Iraqi forces are participating in the fight for Fallujah, only Iraq’s counterterrorism troops are actually entering the city.
U.S. European Command spokesman Lt. Col. David Westover said Thursday the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its strike group of guided missile cruisers and destroyers was now in EUCOM’s area of responsibility in the Atlantic en route to the Mediterranean. But the complexity of the task quickly became apparent.
Iraqi government spokesman Saad al-Hadithi said some fighters suspected of violating human rights during the three-week-old operation to retake the city have been arrested over the past few days and are under investigation.
The step came as the USA -led coalition intensified its campaign against the militants on multiple fronts across their self-proclaimed caliphate.
The Islamic State has managed to detonate massive vehicle and truck bombs inside Baghdad in recent months. Syrian Kurdish forces are advancing on Manbij, an IS-held city controlling the supply route between the Turkish border and the town of Raqqa, the militants’ de facto capital.
Fallujah is one of the last IS strongholds in Iraq.
Iraqi forces have already faced stiff resistance in the fight for Fallujah.
Iraqi forces advancing on Sunday were supported by coalition warplanes and United States artillery stationed at Makhmour, officers involved in the operation said. This month coalition pilots attacked and destroyed 100 tanker trucks near Mosul that were being used by the Islamic State to move stolen oil, the Pentagon said. A government official said the militants were putting up a tough fight defending the city, long an insurgent bastion where US forces fought the heaviest battles of their own 2003-2011 occupation.
Iraqi forces launched an offensive in late March billed as the first step in the drive to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second city.
The troops raised the Iraqi flags on some houses scattered on southern part of the district while artillery, mortar rounds and rockets were pounding deep into the district to clear the way for the troops to achieve further advance, the source said on condition of anonymity. Ali Hamel of the military’s intelligence wing.
“The lesson from the earlier offensive against Tikrit previous year was that where ISIL had the opportunity to dig in, particularly amongst the civilian population, it was always going to take a very long time to get them out without civilian casualties”, Glanville said.
Government forces and allied Shia militias targeted east of Iraqi city, leaving at least 50 dead.
“We expect thousands more to be able to leave in the coming days”, he said. “Once we do, it will only be a matter of time”. Craters from airstrikes left many main roads unusable.
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Suhaib Al-Rawi described them as displaced persons from Fallujah who reached areas controlled by the paramilitary forces.
