The Islamic State (IS) militant group has received a heavy blow when the Iraqi forces reclaimed most of Fallujah, one of its last two strongholds in Iraq.
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Iraqi forces hunted down holdout jihadists in Fallujah Saturday after retaking the city center and trained their sights on Mosul, the Islamic State’s last remaining major hub in the country. The group still controls Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, in the north.
“It’s considered the capital of the Islamic State”, said Brig Gen. Haider al-Obeidi, a special forces commander, as he walked through a neighborhood recently controlled by militants. “They left Falluja with nothing”, said Lise Grande, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq.
The Fallujah offensive began in late May, and IS’s defenses in much of the city collapsed abruptly.
On the occasion, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif offered congratulations to the Iraqi people and its government for liberating the city from terrorist hands, hailing it a “manifestation of. divine victory for those who fight for God”.
The Islamic State took hold of the city in December of 2013, and managed to hold onto it for almost two years, according to Aljazeera. He said IS militants “collapsed”, suggesting that majority fled after the Iraqi forces moved in on al-Nazzal neighborhood.
In Iraq – the battle against Islamic State continues full force with airstrikes and ground operations by Iraqi forces and the US-led coalition. Before Iraqi forces entered, 300 to 700 had been estimated to be inside. Planes from the USA -led coalition have backed up Iraqi forces on the ground.The gains compounded a growing humanitarian crisis in the surrounding province of Anbar, as thousands of civilians who had been trapped inside the city took advantage of the Islamic State’s collapsing grip to flee.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said up to 84,000 people had been forced to flee their homes since the start of the government offensive against the IS bastion almost a month ago.
Government troops cleared two villages and pressed around 20 kilometres (12 miles) along a desert route west of Baiji, the first advance past the town since its recapture in October, the security officials said.
The liberation would also mean that IS has lost a strategic location in central Iraq that enable the group of access to the country’s northern and southern regions from the Iraqi-Syrian border.
Iraqi forces took the center of the city and laid claim to the main government building, raising the Iraqi flag, according to the Wall Street Journal. Al-Abadi tried to assure the displaced that security forces had sacrificed their lives so they could return to live in “security and peace”. The International Organization for Migration put the number at 68,000.They join hundreds of thousands displaced from other areas of Anbar, including the provincial capital, Ramadi, which was recaptured at the end of a year ago. He said special forces believe militants are hiding in areas nearby and that the search for them was continuing.
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“We carry out ID checks here and if we suspect anyone of being an ISIL member we check the information with our security forces, police and intelligence who have data”.
