Iraqi troops have entered Fallujah’s northwestern al-Julan neighborhood, the last remaining stronghold of IS militants in the city.
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The commander of Iraq’s popular mobilization forces, Hadi al-Ameri, says the city of Fallujah is days away from being fully cleared from Daesh terrorists.
BAGHDAD (AP) – A senior Iraqi commander declared that the city of Fallujah was “fully liberated” from Islamic State group militants on Sunday, after a more than monthlong military operation.
Flanked by jubilant fighters, some waving Iraqi flags, Saidi said a few militants were still holding out in buildings. The move came almost four weeks after the start of a U.S.-backed offensive to liberate the city, the last major ISIS foothold in Iraq’s Anbar province.
But Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi slowed the advance to protect civilians amid fears of sectarian violence.
Iraqi government forces flash the sign of victory on their tank on June 22, 2016, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Qayyarah, during their operation to take the city and make it a launch pad for an assault on Mosul. During an insurgency waged by IS group’s militant predecessor, al-Qaida in Iraq, Fallujah was the scene of some of the bloodiest urban combat with American forces. In 2004, more than 100 United States troops died and another 1,000 were wounded fighting insurgents in house-to-house battles.
The jihadist group also managed to seize large swathes of territory in northern and western Iraq and eastern Syria in 2014, establishing a self-declared “Islamic Caliphate” in the territories it captured.
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Upwards of 3.4 million Iraqis have been displaced since January 2014, according to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.
