NAYMIYAH, Iraq (AP) Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces pushed deeper into Islamic State-held Fallujah on Wednesday, more than two weeks after the operation to retake the city from the militant group began, a senior military official said.
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In Iraq, Fallujah lies just 50 km west of Baghdad and its fall to Islamic State in early 2014 was a major humiliation for the Iraqi government, one compounded by the loss of Mosul a few months later.
After securing the southern edge of the city Sunday, Iraqi special forces have entered the Shuhada neighborhood, Maj.
“The counterterrorism forces have recaptured al-Shuhada district in south of Fallujah and raised the Iraqi flag over some buildings, as the troops’ advance is continuing in the district”, the statement said without elaboration.
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, citing witness testimonies, said on Tuesday that allegations of abuse included reports of multiple executions of men and boys, who were trying to escape the ISIL-held city.
A boat carrying fleeing civilians across a river from the ISIS stronghold of Fallujah sank on Saturday, killing at least four people, as pro-Baghdad forces said they had the city nearly completely encircled.
While the city has been besieged for months, Iraqi forces began the operation to liberate Falluja late last month and have the city’s center surrounded.
The elite troops, who operate separately from the Ministry of Defense and are products of a decade-long intense US training program, quickly took the lead in a number of key battles against IS across Iraq.
“Some inside the Iraqi government, some inside Baghdad itself felt the attacks were coming out of Fallujah”, Col. Chris Garver, the spokesman for the coalition-led operation against Islamic State, told reporters at the Pentagon via teleconference from Baghdad.
An umbrella group of Iraqi Shia militias, the Hashd al-Shaabi is now helping the Iraqi army in the ongoing campaign to retake Fallujah from Daesh.
He acknowledged concerns about the slowness of the Fallujah operation but “this is going to happen at the Iraqi pace”.
Lieutenant-General Abdelwahab al-Saadi told AFP: ‘The security forces are advancing towards central Fallujah from the southern side but doing so cautiously, to preserve civilian lives.
Very few of the civilians have managed to escape, and the problem may be larger than anyone was admitting, with the United Nations now saying they believe some 90,000 civilians are trapped within the sieged city, surrounded by Iraqi troops and militia and with no real humanitarian supplies being allowed in.
“We expect to face more resistance, especially because we are the only forces entering the city”, Fadel said.
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Some militias have been accused of sectarian violence against Sunni civilians during previous operations, and their involvement in an offensive against one of IS’s most emblematic strongholds in the Sunni province of Anbar is seen as potentially explosive.
