Iraqi army launches assault against ISIL in Fallujah
 Iraqi special forces launched an assault one of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group's most emblematic bastions, Fallujah, as the group counter-attacked in both Iraq and neighbouring Syria. Quoting commanders, agencies confirmed the assault was launched in the early hours of Monday morning. Troops entered the city from three directions. Explosions and gunfire could be heard in Fallujah's southern Naimiya district, Reuters reported. Fighting on Monday followed battles a day earlier that prompted a new exodus of thousands of desperate civilians from the surrounding areas and deep concern for the many more trapped in the battlegrounds. The overall commander of the Fallujah operation, Abdelwahab al-Saadi, had earlier warned that the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) would enter the city. The week-old operation has so far focused on retaking villages and rural areas around Fallujah, which lies just 50 kilometres west of Baghdad. CTS's involvement will mark the start of a phase of urban combat in a city where US forces in 2004 fought some of their toughest battles since the Vietnam War. In Iraq, only a few hundred families managed to slip out of the Fallujah area, with an estimated 50,000 people still trapped inside the city proper. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), around 3,000 people have managed to escape the Fallujah area since May 21. The biggest wave so far arrived on Saturday night, NRC said, but a larger influx could be triggered when the urban battle between CTS and IS begins in earnest. "Our resources in the camps are now very strained and with many more expected to flee we might not be able to provide enough drinking water for everyone," said Nasr Muflahi, NRC's Iraq director. "We expect bigger waves of displacement the fiercer the fighting gets." The Fallujah operation has come at a human cost, rights groups said, amid battles between ISIL (also known as ISIS) fighters and the advancing Iraqi army and allied Shia militia. Al Jazeera's Omar al-Saleh, reporting from Erbil in northern Iraq, described the situation in the city as dire. "There is a lack of medicine and food. They are caught between the fighting between ISIL and Iraqi forces," he said. |
