The operation to retake Fallujah has involved tens of thousands of government fighters, including from the police, army, counter-terrorism service and forces of the Hashed al-Shaabi, a paramilitary umbrella that is dominated by Shia militias.
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In Iraq on Wednesday, government special forces and Shiite militias breached the city limits of Fallujah, which the Islamic State has been holding for two years.
In a telephone interview with Reuters in Baghdad, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq Lise Grande for Iraq warned that the civilians could face a “harrowing” situation in the besieged city 50 kilometers (32 miles) west of Baghdad.
“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.
A soldier from Iraq’s elite counterterrorism forces monitors radio traffic from an armored vehicle as special forces enter the nearby Shuhada neighborhood in Islamic State-held Fallujah, Iraq, Wednesday, June 8, 2016.
But Iraqi commanders and their USA advisers are waiting to see whether Islamic State fighters will try to hold Fallujah.
The Islamic State has prevented civilians from leaving the city despite a lack of food, water and medicines.
“It’s unacceptable that civilians are being subject to mistreatment simply because they are Sunnis or were living in Daesh-held parts of the city”, he said.
Falluja has been a bastion of the Sunni insurgency that fought both the US occupation of Iraq and the Shi’ite-led Baghdad government.
In Fallujah, “fighting in the approaches to the city has been significant, especially in the south”, Garver said. Abadi has expressed hope that 2016 would be year of “final victory” over Islamic State, with the capture of Mosul, their de facto capital in northern Iraq.
“We just can’t do more if we don’t get urgent funding”, she said.
Government forces, backed by USA airstrikes, have smashed through three ISIS perimeters, taken control of the city’s main hospital and a key bridge across the Euphrates and killed regional ISIS commander Abu Amir Ansari. Gen. Mohammed al-Ghasri told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The forces have fought to within 3 miles of the center of Sirte, the site of grisly executions of local residents by the Islamic State, Brig.
Last month, Turkey protested to the US when American Special Forces advisers moving with the YPG near the front lines in Syria were photographed wearing the arm patches of the YPG.
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Washington worries that the Iraqi military could become bogged down in hostile territory there, and is also concerned about the role of Shi’ite militia, whose leaders criticised Abadi last week for slowing the advance to protect civilians.
