Iraq - Fallujah assault

PressTV-Iraqi army liberates Fallujah districts
Iraqi army liberates Fallujah districts from Daesh grip
Iraqi armed forces have purged Takfiri Daesh terrorists from two neighborhoods in the strategic city of Fallujah in their latest push against the Takfiri militants wreaking havoc in the Middle Eastern country.

According to a military statement released on Tuesday, the Iraqi elite counter-terrorism forces managed to wrest control of the northeastern Shurta police district while units from Baghdad operations command retook the Askari military area.

The Daesh elements were pushed back into a handful of northern and western neighborhoods of Fallujah, located in the Western province of Anbar.

Bomb blast injures al-Hashd al-Shaabi’s Media Officer - Iraqi News
The Leadership of al-Hashd al-Shaabi announced on Tuesday that the Media Officer of al-Hashd al-Shaabi Captain Essam al-Din Abullah was injured in a bomb blast at central Fallujah.

The commander of al-Karma brigade in Anbar Province, Colonel Jumaa al-Jumaili, in a press statement, a copy of which was obtained by Iraqi News, said, “An explosive device exploded at noon today while a search operation at the residential areas was in full swing at central Fallujah. Media Officer of al-Hashd al-Shaabi Captain Essam al-Din Abullah received several injuries in the blast.”

Jumaili added, “ISIS have planted hundreds of IEDs at every street, residential areas and houses, as well as booby-trapping garbage baskets, gas containers and electricity poles.”
(The "we've liberated Fallujah" message seems a bit premature.)
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/23/w...n-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
A Tour of Falluja Reveals Grim Remnants of Life Under ISIS
Days after Iraqi forces raised the national flag over the main government compound and declared victory, the battle has moved to western neighborhoods, where some Islamic State fighters, many of them foreigners, remain, officials said.

About a third of the city has been cleared of insurgents, said Col. Christopher C. Garver, an American military spokesman in Baghdad. Still, American officials believe the city will eventually fall fully into government hands.

The battle has not yet played out as many feared it would: as a vicious, house-to-house fight like the one American Marines faced in 2004.

“The Islamic State did not fight seriously this time because the big leaders left their fighters on their own,” said Col. Mohammed al-Jumaili, a commander of a government-allied Sunni militia in Anbar Province. He said that many of the local Islamic State fighters resisted at first, but began escaping with their families once it became clear that the loose, pro-government alliance of soldiers, policemen, Shiite militiamen and Sunni fighters was winning.
 
Two ISIS members killed in central Fallujah - Iraqi News
Federal Police discovers ISIS communication center south of Fallujah - Iraqi News
The Federal Police Command on Thursday announced about the killing of two ISIS members, apart from the seizure of a booby-trapping and explosives laboratory at central Fallujah.

The Federal Police Chief, Lt. Gen. Raed Shaker Jawdat in a press statement said, “Today, Federal Police forces managed to kill two ISIS members, while found a booby-trapping laboratory in al-Andalus neighborhood in central Fallujah.”

Jawdat added, “The security force also found 500 explosive devices, three explosive belts, nine rocket launchers and ten containers filled with TNT.”

The Federal Police Command announced on Thursday, that the Iraqi security forces had found the ISIS communication center south of Fallujah.

The commander of the Third Division of the Elite Forces of the Federal Police, Maj. Gen. Haidar Yusuf al-Matiri, in a brief statement said, “A reconnaissance mission carried out by the Third Division led to the discovery of the ISIS communication system inside one of the houses in Fallujah.”

“The communication system was dismantled by the technical team of the division after defusing the explosives surrounding it,” he also added.
 
80 percent of Fallujah liberated
Military confrontations in Fallujah are ongoing as Iraqi army forces have made great strides against remaining Islamic State (ISIS) militants in the town and have retaken control of 80 percent of the city.

"I can say that more than 80 percent [of the city] is controlled by our forces," Lieutenant General of the Iraqi army, Abdulwahab al-Saadi, told AFP in Fallujah.

There are still some areas in the northern parts where ISIS is holding on but Saadi is sure that they soon "will all be eliminated, God willing."

Saadi said the main flashpoint was now the Jolan neighborhood in the northwestern corner of Fallujah.


Pockets of ISIS fighters also remained in the rural areas of Hosai and Azraqiyah, immediately to the west of the city.


Iraqi forces are now focusing on removing roadside bombs and booby traps.

The US Defense Department confirmed the successes of the Iraqi army, announcing on Sunday that 70 percent of Fallujah has so far been liberated from ISIS.

Peter Cook, a spokesperson of the US defense department, said that over the past five weeks, at least 100 airstrikes were carried out on ISIS positions inside Fallujah.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi praised the army’s victory and announced on Friday that the city centre was under army control. “Security forces have recaptured the centre of Fallujah city,” Abadi announced.

Iraqi forces closing in on last ISIS-held area in Fallujah
House to house fighting- see video. What a mess Fullujah is ...
 
Iraq screening 20,000 to stop IS infiltrators: army
Iraq screening 20,000 to stop IS infiltrators: army

Iraq is screening 20,000 people leaving the Fallujah area to stop jihadists of the Islamic State group escaping among civilians displaced by fighting, the army said on Saturday.

Tens of thousands of people have fled as government forces fight to oust IS from Fallujah, a city 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

Some of those screened have accused security forces of beating and torturing them.

Of those detained, 2,185 were suspects based on testimonies or other information, while 11,605 were released and about 7,000 were still being checked, said a spokesman for Iraq's Joint Operations Command.

When fleeing civilians reached government forces, teenaged boys and men were screened separately, with some being released after a few hours while others underwent more thorough interrogation.

Relatives mobbed Iraqi officials at a camp for displaced last week to ask about the fate of hundreds of missing males.

One man said he was held for four days without anything to drink or eat by the Popular Mobilisation forces, an umbrella organisation for volunteer fighters dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias.

Another said detainees were beaten, and others had similar accounts of torture.

Human Rights Watch this month called for Iraq to "unravel the web of culpability underlying the government forces' repeated outrages against civilians".
 
Is it over?
Iraq takes 'last IS bastion in Falluja' - BBC News
The Iraqi army says it has seized the last strongholds of the so-called Islamic State (IS) group in the city of Falluja.

The head of the counterterrorism forces in the operation, Lt Gen Abdul-Wahad al-Saadi, said his troops had entered the northwestern Golan neighbourhood, the last area still under IS control.

The city was "fully liberated", he said.
see also
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/New...creens-20-000-to-stop-ISIS-infiltrators-.html
and ‘The battle for Fallujah is over,’ announces military rep
 
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The cost of the assault of Fallujah? The ruin of Fallujah ... see some videos
Fallujah Council: 30 pc of the city is destroyed during military operations - Iraqi News
Fallujah Local Council announced on Sunday that the damage caused to the city because of military operations has reached to 30 per cent and it further informed that the local government is working to remove the remnants of war and rehabilitate the city in order to prepare it for the return of displaced people.

The spokesman for the local council Salam Ajami al-Halbusi, in a statement issued to the media, said, “The percentage of damage in several areas of Fallujah, after they have been liberated from ISIS control, has been estimated to be around 30 per cent. The damages were caused during the organized terrorist operations.”

Fallujah fully liberated, announce Federal Police - Iraqi News
 
'The air smelt of war' - inside Falluja after its liberation from IS - BBC News
The air in Falluja smelt of war. Fires were burning around the city centre.

Some of them, according to Lieutenant Hassan, an Iraqi intelligence officer at the scene, were started by Iraqi troops.

He said they would throw grenades into suspicious buildings. In one of them I could hear ammunition exploding.

Falluja was virtually deserted, except for roving bands of cheerful Iraqi troops.

All the civilians appeared to have left. I saw corpses of fighters from the jihadist group that calls itself Islamic State (IS), left where they died.

see also on ongoing humanitarian crisis
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/per...-desert-camps-after-flight-from-Fallujah.html
""It's the same as always," she said. "This is a rich country, but our politicians only look after themselves."" So the fertile ground for IS continues.

see also Inside a prison in Fallujah where the Islamic State tortured and killed
 
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PressTV-‘Iraqis fleeing Fallujah need help’
Civilians fleeing the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was recently liberated from the grip of Takfiri Daesh terrorists, are in urgent need of aid with poor sanitary conditions threatening their health, a charity says.

The International Medical Corps (IMC), a global humanitarian nonprofit organization established by volunteer doctors and nurses, issued the warning on Tuesday.

Simon Cowie, an IMC field coordinator in Baghdad, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that Iraqis who fled fighting in Fallujah do not have enough food, water and healthcare, and are stuck in limbo in scorching, cramped camps nearby.

"The people are quite desperate at the moment. They are facing a lack of all essential items – lack of water, lack of food, lack of access to toilets and showers, healthcare, education is more or less non-existent,” Cowie said.

The charity worker further expressed concern over the situation of young children, pregnant women, people with disabilities and the elderly with temperatures reaching 45 degrees Celsius.

"The situation out there in the camps is truly awful. It's unlike anything I've ever seen before," Cowie added.
(So nobody thought of the thousands of people living in Fallujah when the fighting started, except that IS might use them as human shields :rolleyes: )
 
Fallujah refugees hesitant to return home for fear of Shiite militia
Fallujah refugees hesitant to return home for fear of Shiite militia
Some residents of the Iraqi Sunni city of Fallujah who recently fled the bombardment and intense fighting between the Islamic State (ISIS) and government forces have expressed fear of returning home for fear of revenge by members of the Shiite militia known as Hashd al-Shaabi.
“My work is in Fallujah and if I get the chance I will eventually go back alone and leave my family in Kurdistan for fear of execution and revenge acts,” Abdullah Al-Jamelyi, a refugee who is now sheltered in the Kurdistan Region told Rudaw.
The Iraqi government announced last week, after its forces recaptured Fallujah from ISIS militants, that residents who fled the war would be able to return home once the city has been cleared of bombs and explosives.
“Our only hope is to go home and live in peace just like other countries, but there is something that scares us which is the internal conflicts,” said another refugee. “All the refugees are watching the conditions of the city from a distance.”
Many Fallujans reported acts of murder, torture and mass imprisonment by members of the Shiite militia as they made their ways out of the city during the fight earlier this year.
The acts were confirmed by Anbar governor Suhaib al-Rawi who told Rudaw that thousands of civilians had been held against their will and scored killed in cold blood. In one case alone, said al-Rawi, 17 people were killed by the Shiite militia.
(So Fallujah is liberated to become a .... ghost town?)
 
Highway of Death in reprise - IS conflict: Iraq air strikes 'target militant convoy' - BBC News
A convoy carrying suspected Islamic State militants has been destroyed in air strikes near the Iraqi city of Falluja, the defence ministry says.

An Iraqi security source told the BBC the jihadists had been attempting to flee an offensive by government forces, who recently recaptured Falluja.

They were bombed by Iraqi air force planes as they headed for IS territory near the border with Syria, he added.

Photos purportedly of the scene showed about a dozen burned-out vehicles.

The security source, who asked not to be named, told the BBC that a large number of militants fleeing the assault had gathered in the al-Ruwaila area.

They had planned to drive through Iraq's western desert to the IS-held town of al-Qaim, near the border of Anbar province with Syria, he added.

Acting on intelligence, Iraqi air force warplanes carried out a series of strikes on the convoy west of the town of Amariyat al-Falluja late on Tuesday, killing many militants, the source said.

Those who survived the raids were believed to have fled towards nearby Lake Razzaza and Lake Habbaniya.

A statement issued by the Iraqi defence ministry cited Gen Hamid al-Maliki, head of the Army Aviation Command, as saying that dozens of vehicles were destroyed in the strikes, which he said were continuing.

The security source added that the head of the Badr Organisation, a powerful Shia militia, had sent fighters to the area in case the militants tried to attack the Shia shrine city of Karbala, to the south.

There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the US-led coalition against IS, which provided extensive air support for the Falluja offensive.

Also on Wednesday, the US said it would make $2.7bn (£2bn) available to the Iraqi government to help pay for its war against IS.

The loan will fund ammunition purchases and the maintenance of fighter planes, tanks and other military equipment.
 
Iraq: Fallujah is liberated, now what?
Iraq: Fallujah is liberated, now what?
What will the Iraqi government do with its hard-won military victory in Fallujah to make it politically sustainable?

Iraqi media reported statements by Shia leaders that speak of the "costly sacrifices" invested in the war against ISIL, hoping this will make post-Fallujah Iraq different from the country it was before. Accordingly, like post-ISIL Diyalah and Salahuddin, two cities that were retaken from ISIL fighters some 18 months ago, the Iraqi government will ensure that Fallujah also remains under its firm grip.

For this to happen, Iraqi press reports say that a new military command will be set up in Fallujah to police the city after the army and federal police restore stability and leave. The new command will be designed on the model of the Samarra Operation Command which was established following the bombing of the Shia holy shrines in 2006 and comprised mainly security forces and Shia militias.

Effectively, this will give the security forces as well as the PMF full control over the city with assistance from local tribes that have contributed an auxiliary role in the fight against ISIL.

The goal would be to prevent ISIL from making a comeback and to block any new Sunni armed resistance from coming into being. Therefore it is highly unlikely that Fallujah will be policed by a local Sunni security force.
 
Dig a trench?! That'll keep 'em out ... :rolleyes:
PressTV-Iraqis digging trench around Fallujah
Iraqi forces are digging a trench around Fallujah to keep Daesh terrorists at bay and prevent any potential onslaught and systematic looting of the recently-liberated city.

Lieutenant General Abdulwahab al-Saadi, the commander of Fallujah Liberation Operation, said the ditch will have a single opening for local residents to move in and out of the western city, located roughly 69 kilometers (43 miles) west of the capital, Baghdad.

It “will protect the city’s residents, who have lived through many tragedies, as well as security forces deployed there,” Saadi commented.

The trench will be about 11 kilometers (7 miles) long, about 12.5 meters (40 feet) wide and 1.5 meters (5 feet) deep.
...
The report comes as the Iraqi government also plans to dig a trench along the border between the embattled western province of Anbar, where Fallujah is located, and neighboring Karbala, which houses the holy shrine of Imam Hussein (PBUH), the grandson of Prophet Muhammad and third Shia imam.

Security forces dig 11-km trench around Fallujah - Iraqi News
Speaking about ways of identifying Fallujah residents, Fallujah Mayor Eissa al-Eissawy said, “Personal data of Fallujah residents will be electronically saved and digital IDs will issued to them and this will ease their entry and exit to the city. Badges with electronic chip of the vehicles will also be issued to the residents.”
 
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/31/world/middleeast/at-the-front-in-a-scarred-falluja.html
At the Front in a Scarred Falluja
Aside from a few older men, there are few men or boys in the camps. They have been taken to screening where the government tries to weed out possible Islamic State fighters. After weeks, some of the displaced families still have no word about what has happened to their men.

Most of the forces securing Falluja and the surrounding area are Shiite. But the families, and the detained men, are Sunnis. And though there have been few verified reports of extrajudicial killings or abuse, the people’s resentment and fear are being carried in whispers.


Victory is never the end of the story here.
 
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/iraq/03082016
Fallujah is still a ghost city even if it is cleared of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) and now the Iraqi government is reorganizing and rebuilding the city’s governmental administrative units in order to encourage people to return to the city.
However, the mayor of Fallujah claims the city's population is afraid of the prospect of Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi presence in their city.

In the streets of Fallujah, pictures of Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran have been hung on walls alonside with Ali Sistani, the top Shiite cleric in Iraq. In front of mosques, Imam Hussein flags have been flying as well.
 
I thought we'd been told this was all over?
Security forces secure 25 per cent of Fallujah - Iraqi News
West of Baghdad Operations Command announced about securing 25 per cent of areas of Fallujah and cleaning it from ISIS remnants, as well as diffusing a number IEDs and booby-trapped houses.

The commander of West of Baghdad Operations Major General Saad Harbeya said, “Security forces managed to clean 25 per cent of Fallujah from ISIS control and secure all areas of the city in preparation for the return of displaced persons to their liberated areas.”
 

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