Iraq Begins assault to Take Fallujah from ISIL

Iraqi troops and local militias were on the outskirts of Fallujah last night (Monday) as the long-awaited assault on Islamic State jihadists holding the city began.

Residents of nearby western Baghdad and the United Nations high commission for refugees reported that scores of Fallujah families had managed to escape the city, responding to warnings from the prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, to leave.

The assault was supported by an advance bombardment, including aerial bombing. The US-led coalition said it had struck 21 targets in and around the city in the last week, including three on Sunday.



The city has been suffering from the effects of siege for months, with residents starving and dying from lack of medicine. Many Iraqi politicians, especially those from predominantly Sunni Muslim Anbar province, are fearful of what will remain after yet another assault on a city that has become a byword for Islamist militancy. It suffered two battles in 2004 as American forces sought to seize it back from some of the same insurgent forces that went on to form Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). The destruction embittered parts of the community for years later.

Mr Abadi visited the forward operating command post on yesterday morning, dressed in black fatigues.

He issued a warning to Isil. "Zero hour for the liberation of Fallujah has arrived. The moment of great victory has drawn near and Daesh has no choice but to flee," he said.

On Sunday, he had warned the remaining residents, said to number in their tens of thousands, to leave while they could, or to post white flags on their roofs. Isil had been trying to prevent an exodus with threats of force, after putting down opposition from local tribes earlier in the year.

Mr Abadi said his forces would "tear up the black banners of strangers who usurped this city" and later claimed that Isil's defences were "collapsing".

According to the government, the advance was being led by the army and the elite, American-trained counter-terrorism force, along with some local Sunni tribal militiamen. In order to reassure the local community, the main Shia militias, which have won a reputation for revenge attacks as they retake Sunni areas, were supposedly being held on the fringes of the battle.

Haider al-Ameri, the leader of the biggest militia, the Iran-backed Badr Organisation, last year told The Daily Telegraph that Fallujah represented "the head of the snake", as he led operations to the north of Fallujah.

The UNHCR said it believed 80 families had so far fled, with local residents saying the number was greater. Conditions inside the city are hard to assess, as Isil cut off all communications earlier this month.

By early yesterday afternoon, the Iraqi forces had been able to seize land surrounding al-Garma, a small town to the east of Fallujah that Isil has been using as springboard for raids on government-held western Baghdad.

The military said the advancing forces had control of al-Nuaimiyah, on the southern outskirts, as well as the northern and eastern approaches. Col Steve Warren, the coalition spokesman, said the advance was "meeting light-to-moderate resistance".

Residents in March said that Isil had already withdrawn its most senior leaders from the city before it was fully surrounded. A mere 400 to 600 fighters are estimated to remain.

However, there was no illusion that the battle for the city would be an easy one. The force required by US and allied troops in overcoming the the then fledgling al-Qaeda in Iraq in 2004 became a major recruiting tool for the group.

If Isil loses Fallujah, it will only have one major city under its sway in Iraq - Mosul - as well as its Syrian de facto capital, Raqqa, and Sirte in Libya.

In an audio recording at the weekend, Isil's chief spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, suggested the group was preparing to return to the days when it was an insurgency without territory.