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  ISIS hits back as Iraq pushes into Fallujah

ISIS hits back as Iraq pushes into Fallujah

AFP
Published : May 31, 2016, 11:48 pm IST
Updated : May 31, 2016, 11:48 pm IST

Iraqi forces faced tough resistance from ISIS on Tuesday as they attempted to enter the centre of Fallujah, where there were mounting fears for thousands of trapped civilians.

Iraqi forces faced tough resistance from ISIS on Tuesday as they attempted to enter the centre of Fallujah, where there were mounting fears for thousands of trapped civilians.

A day after announcing a push into the jihadist bastion, forces led by Iraq’s elite counterterrorism service had some way to go before retaking the city.

After thrusting toward Fallujah from three directions on Monday, their biggest advance was from the south, where they pushed into the suburb of Naimiyah.

Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi, the overall commander of the Fallujah operation, said ISIS fighters mounted a fierce counter-attack on the area early on Tuesday.

“There were around 100 fighters involved, they came at us heavily armed but did not use car bombs or suicide bombers,” he said.

Gen. Saadi said Iraqi forces in the area, which also include police and army units, were eventually able to repel the attack, killing 75 jihadists. He did not give a figure for losses on the pro-government side.

Officers said US-led coalition and Iraqi air support was instrumental in repelling the attack and added that ground forces had now resumed their advance.

Fallujah, which lies on the Euphrates River west of Baghdad, was lost from government control months before ISIS swept across large parts of Iraq in June 2014 and is an emblematic bastion for the jihadist group.

Iraqi forces have been sealing off Fallujah for months and those still in city — ISIS fighters and civilians alike — have nowhere to go.

Anbar capital Ramadi was almost levelled when Iraqi forces retook it a few months ago but many more civilians — most estimates say around 50,000 — are trapped inside Fallujah.

Humanitarian organisations, the Iraqi government itself and the country’s most respected Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, have all appealed for the plight of civilians to be given the utmost care.

Some 3,700 people have fled Fallujah over the past week since the Iraqi Army began its offensive on the city controlled by ISIS, the United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday.

“We have reports of casualities among people in the city centre in Falluja due to heavy shelling, including 7 members of one family on the 28th of May. We also have several reports of people being used as human shields by ISIL,” UNHCR spokesman William Spindler told a press briefing.

Location: Iraq, Baghdad