Fallujah fully liberated from IS: Iraq

BAGHDAD / AP

A senior Iraqi commander declared that the city of Fallujah was “fully liberated” from IS group militants
on Sunday, after a more
than monthlong military
operation.
Iraqi troops have entered the northwestern Al Julan neighborhood, the last area of Fallujah to remain under IS control, the head of the counterterrorism forces in the operation, Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab Al Saadi, said.
Al-Saadi said the operation, which began in late May, “is done and the city is fully liberated.” The Iraqi army was backed by US-led coalition airstrikes and paramilitary troops, mostly Shiite militias.
“From the center of Al Julan neighborhood, we congratulate the Iraqi people and the commander in chief…and declare that the Fallujah fight is over,” he told Iraqi state TV, flanked by military officers and soldiers. Some of the soldiers were shooting in the air, chanting and waving the Iraqi flag.
He added that troops will start working on removing bombs from the city’s streets and buildings.
The announcement comes more than a week after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi declared victory in Fallujah after Iraqi forces advanced into the city center and took control of a government complex. While Al Abadi pledged the remaining pockets of IS fighters would be cleared out within hours, fierce clashes on the city’s northern and western edges persisted for days.
The operation has fueled an exodus of thousands of families, overwhelming camps for the displaced run by the government and aid groups.
According to the U.N. Refugee Agency, more than 85,000 people have fled Fallujah and the surrounding area since the offensive began. Like other aid agencies, the UNHCR warned of the dire conditions in the camps, where temperatures are well over 40 degrees (104 Fahrenheit) and shelter is limited, calling for more funds to meet the mounting needs of the displaced. Fallujah has been under the control of Islamic State militants since January 2014.
Fallujah, which is located in Anbar province about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad, was the first city to fall to IS in January 2014. During an insurgency waged by IS group’s militant predecessor, Al Qaida in Iraq, Fallujah was the scene of some of the bloodiest urban combat with American forces. In 2004, more than 100 US troops died and another 1,000 were wounded fighting insurgents in house-to-house battles.
IS extremists still control significant areas in northern and western Iraq, including the country’s second-largest city of Mosul. The group declared an Islamic caliphate on the territory it holds in Iraq and Syria and at the height of its power was estimated to hold nearly a third of each country.
In total, more than 3.3 million Iraqis have fled their homes since IS swept across northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014, according to UN figures. More than 40 percent of the displaced are from Anbar province.

Iraq screening 20,000 to
stop IS infiltrators: Army

Baghdad / AFP

Iraq is screening 20,000 people leaving the Fallujah area to stop extremists of the IS group escaping among civilians displaced by fighting, the army said.
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”.