Iraqi government forces clash with Islamic State (IS) group fighters in Fallujah on June 18, 2016 as they hunt down holdout jihadists after retaking the city which was IS’s last remaining major hub in Iraq.
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US Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Iraqi forces had taken back a portion of the city.
In the central province of Salahuddin, where IS suffered a major defeat previous year when it lost former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, government forces pushed north of the province toward IS territory, said Brig.
Fallujah which lies only 50 kilometres west of Baghdad, has been held by Isis for longer than any other city in Iraq or Syria. The airfield could serve as a key staging ground for an attempt to take the city serving as the de facto capital for ISIS in Iraq.
“I was stunned. We never expected them to be this weak”, said Sgt. Ammar Abdel Aal, who was unarmed and had shed his body armor.
“They were hiding in these streets, using snipers and auto bombs”, said Lt. Gen. Abdelwahab al-Saedi, commander of the Fallujah operation.
The battle against Islamic State in Iraq continues in full force with airstrikes and ground operations by Iraqi forces and the US -led coalition.
Three days of fighting has left more than 30,000 people displaced from the city, in addition to the more than 32,000 who were already uprooted from Fallujah since the outset of the army offensive, the Norwegian Refugee Council said in a statement on Sunday.
Iraqi troops have been advancing under the cover of air strikes by the USA -led coalition and Iraq’s air force.
On Friday the country’s prime minister said government forces had gained control of most of Fallujah, after weeks of fighting on its outskirts. Advocates of this scenario say that as happened with Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Daesh will merely resurface after the campaign, perhaps in an even more vigorous form.
Al-Obeidi says most of the fighters are foreigners who can not melt into the local population or sneak into other parts of the country still controlled by the extremist group. There’s been a major offensive on the city since the end of May, but until Saturday forces had been held out of Manbij. However, a video shot by United States drones flying over Fallujah in the past few days has shown Daesh fighters donning civilian clothing and burning their weapons with the aim of escaping along with the thousands of civilians fleeing the city. In his televised address, Abadi said, “We promised to liberate Fallujah, and today Fallujah was returned to the bosom of the country”.
Rasoul said the fighting is concentrating north of the oil refinery of Beiji, Iraq’s largest.
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The aid community has been overwhelmed by the influx of people and many were sleeping in the open, in the scorching summer sun and waiting for a tent at one of the displacement camps. NRC spokesperson Karl Scheembri told journalists: “We’re extremely concerned that the most vulnerable-pregnant women, the elderly, sick persons and people with disabilities-have been unable to come out and they are the ones who need aid most after months under siege with no food, no water and no medical aid”.
