The Iraqi military said Wednesday its forces had entered the city limits of Fallujah for the first time since their offensive to retake the Islamic State-held city began more than two weeks ago.
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Instead, the opposite has been the case, as this week’s publication of the US State Department’s annual report on global terrorism clearly demonstrates.
Also on Tuesday, the United Nations human rights chief said there were “extremely distressing, credible reports” that Iraqis fleeing the fighting in Fallujah were facing extreme abuse, and even death, at the hands of Shia armed groups allied with the government troops.
Displaced Iraqi families, who fled their homes in and around Fallujah, queue for food rations and other emergency supplies at a camp in Amiriyah Fallujah, south of Fallujah, Iraq, June 6, 2016.
Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, the USA commander in Iraq, defended the performance of Iraqi forces in the operation, saying they were playing a larger role than the Shiite militias in leading the isolation of Fallujah.
“I hope that [Prime Minister] and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Haidar al-Abadi will give priority to the fight to liberate Fallujah [from Daesh] and refrain from opening any new fronts”, Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of the Shia Badr Organization, told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.
The involvement of government-aligned Shiite militias has raised concerns about sectarian friction in Fallujah, located in Iraq’s Sunni heartland about 45 miles west of Baghdad. Hundreds have used inner tubes and makeshift rafts to ford the Euphrates river, which lies just west of the city, and reach safety, government officials and humanitarian aid groups say.
“We have underestimated how many civilians are in Fallujah”, Grande said. ISIS and ISIL are acronyms for the Islamic State.
Garver said Islamic State attacks on the capital have focused on “soft targets”, such as police checkpoints and markets.
The findings are partly based on interviews with the area councilmen of Saqlawiyah, a suburb of Fallujah. He also thanked China for using its veto at the U.N. Security Council months after the crisis began to prevent the imposition of sanctions on Syria as well as Russia, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah group – three key allies that have played a critical role in boosting Assad’s forces.
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Associated Press writer Murtada Faraj contributed from Baghdad.
