Iraq’s military said Friday that it had entered the center of Fallujah, a city just 40 miles west of Baghdad that has been held for two years by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and retaken a central government compound from the terror group.
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Iraqi forces have “tightened their control over the inside of the city, and there are some pockets that need to be cleaned out within hours”, he said. “They would beat us with water pipes; they would take turns to torture us”.
Iraqi forces were clearing roadside bombs near the government complex, which includes the municipality offices that the Islamic State had torched, the police station and other government buildings.
According to Iraqi commanders, the IS resistance has collapsed suggesting that most of its fighters fled after the Iraqi forces moved in on al-Nazzal district. Humanitarian agencies have warned of the dangers of civilians fleeing the city as Daesh militants have routinely shot at deserters.
The area served as a base for militants, with weapons warehouses.
The police were advancing along Baghdad Street, the main east-west road running through the city, and counter-terrorism forces had surrounded Falluja hospital, the statement said.
IS militants are reported to have used residents as human shields to slow the advance of government forces and limit air strikes by a US-led coalition. Gen. Saad Harbiya, an Iraqi army commander.
The Iraqi military estimates that 20 percent to 25 percent of the city has been cleared of ISIS fighters and is under the control of the Iraqi Security Forces, Garver said.
General Abdel-Wahab Saadi, the lead commander of the Fallujah assault, told AFP: “This operation was done with little resistance from Daesh [a pejorative Arabic acronym for IS]”.
“They know, by experience, that a small number of IS fighters in urban terrain can not stop an Iraqi security forces ground assault supported by coalition airstrikes”, said Patrick Martin, Iraq analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.
But fighting continues to rage inside the city.
“A gunman fired and hit the mother’s shoulder and killed her son in her arms”, they said.
IS captured Fallujah in 2014, but after heavy fighting over the past month, Iraqi forces have been able to retake almost half of the city.
The UN says about 42,000 people have fled Falluja since the government offensive began on 23 May, although Medecins Sans Frontieres and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) put the figure at closer to 30,000.
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Though the bulk of ISIS’ leadership and fighters may have fled the city, the escape route is still unsafe for civilians with many being killed or wounded by roadside bombs.
