Iraqi forces raised the national flag over the government compound in Fallujah on June 17, 2016, top commanders said, a breakthrough in the almost four-week-old offensive against the Islamic State group’s bastion.
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“We carry out ID checks here and if we suspect anyone of being an ISIL member we check the information with our security forces, police and intelligence who have data”. Others have managed to find refuge in warehouses or mosques.
“Thousands of families may also remain trapped in Fallujah”, Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the United Nations secretary-general, said on Saturday.
“We implore the Iraqi government to take charge of this humanitarian disaster unfolding on our watch”, he said. Now that some people have been able to flee, government forces are declaring that the city is “deserted” in order to justify indiscriminate attacks.
“We can not continue to provide aid when we do not even know who is where and what they need”, Muflahi said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared on Friday night the victory of Fallujah operations after 25 days of battles around and inside the city.
The sound of gunfire exchanged between Iraqi forces and the small pockets of ISIS militants rang out across the besieged city of Falluja, American media reported on Sunday.
Troops have also been sent to the southern outskirts of Mosul, another ISIL-held city in northern Iraq, where the army announced a military offensive on Saturday. He said 1,000 militants had been killed in the operation to retake the city.
Aid supplies are running dangerously low in overcrowded conditions.
An Iraqi army commander, speaking with Rudaw, said that most of the streets and alleys of the town have been wired with bombs.
The gains compounded a growing humanitarian crisis in the surrounding province of Anbar, as thousands of civilians who had been trapped inside the city took advantage of the Islamic State’s collapsing grip to flee.
“The overwhelming number of people that have come out of Fallujah has actually overwhelmed our ability to respond to the people in need”. Fierce fighting took place the whole day, but by evening victory was claimed, and Iraqi forces achieved to push the terrorist group out of the territory. “They promised you that they would withstand, and they didn’t”, he said.
Government troops, supported by multiple air strikes from a USA -led coalition, recaptured the municipal building, though the ultra-hardline militants still controlled a significant portion of Fallujah, an hour’s drive west of Baghdad, and many streets and houses remain mined with explosives.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi has vowed that it will be their next battleground.
DAESH, which by US estimates has been ousted from nearly half of the territory it seized when Iraqi forces partially collapsed in 2014, has used residents as human shields to slow the military’s advance and help avoid air strikes.
But analysts said although the loss is “significant”, the group could still survive.
Attention also turned to a new area Saturday.
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Men who have fled have been detained for security screening.
