Members of the Saraya al-Salam (Peace Brigades), formed by Iraqi Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, parade in Najaf as they prepare to reinforce government forces in the fight against the Islamic State group for control of Fallujah Iraqi security forces and allied fighters have regained significant ground from the jihadists, securing the Ramadi area earlier this year and retaking the town of Heet last month.
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Announcing the offensive in a late-night speech, Abadi said it would be conducted by the army, police, counter-terrorism forces, local tribal allies and a coalition of mostly Shi’ite Muslim militias.
Iraqi military on Sunday asked the residents of ISIS-held Falluja city to flee their homes as they prepared for an operation to wipe out the terror group from the metropolis.
The city on the Euphrates River, 50km west of the capital, had a pre-war population of around 300,000.
It is encircled by Iraqi forces and a coalition of Shiite militias known as Hashid Shaabi.
Citizens who can not should “raise a white flag” on their homes, it said.
A tank of the Iraqi army is seen on the outskirts of the city of Falluja, Iraq May 19, 2015.
Iraqi military commander Colonel MahmoudMorzi al-Jumaili announced that the terrorist commanders have begun escaping from the town, which is located 48 kilometers (30 miles) west of the capital, Baghdad, and heading toward an unknown location in Anbar Province, Lebanon’s al-Ahed news website reported.
Saad al-Hadithi, a spokesman for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, said the “liberation” of Falluja would help restore normal life to Anbar, the western province over which Islamic State took almost complete control in 2014.
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Last month, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned civilians still living in Fallujah were in danger of starvation. It was gravely harmed in two offensives by USA powers against al Qaeda guerillas in 2004. But parts of Anbar – including Fallujah – are still under IS control, as is most of Nineveh province, to its north. Iraqi security forces repeated calls for civilians trapped inside Fallujah to flee on Sunday, but residents say that checkpoints controlled by the extremists along all roads leading out of the city are preventing most from fleeing.
