Iraqi Army Makes Huge Strides in Northern Baghdad and Fallujah

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The Iraqi army pushes ISIS away from the capital and prepares to besiege Fallujah.

"For months, ISIS militants have attempted to break-through the ISF’s frontline defenses in the territory north of Baghdad with multiple assaults that originally produced impressive results. However, at the dawn of the New Year, the ISF bounced back and launched their own counter-offensive geared to push the ISIS militants away from the nation’s capital and further northwest in order to create a much-needed buffer-zone.

In the matter of 7 days, the ISF’s 59th Brigade – in coordination with local tribes, Badr Brigades, and Kata’eb Hezbollah – retook the villages of Tal Mas’oud, North Halasba, and Madrasat Albu Asl, killing 18 ISIS militants in the process. The ISF also managed to secure the strategic main road from Baghdad to Haditha; they also managed to destroy a number of armored vehicles mounted with 23mm anti-aircraft machine guns. Firefights were also reported at Sab Al-Bour, where the ISF is currently engaged in a fierce battle with ISIS.

The ISIS stronghold of Fallujah is steadily facing a besiegement by the ISF in the coming weeks, after the latter captured the imperative industrial facility 4km away from the city-center. Northeast of Fallujah, the ISF killed a confirmed 37 militants at Karma before they were able to advance past the outskirts of the village. With the ISF only a few kilometers away from Fallujah, ISIS will have to rally their forces to thwart the former’s imminent infiltration.

ISIS militants attempted to breach the ISF’s defenses at a military facility at Al-Nukhayb (west Al-Anbar); however, they were quickly repelled due to a barrage of mortar shells and gunfire that crippled their attack. Also, in the Al-Anbar Governorate, the ISF destroyed 2 armored vehicles that were operated by 2 suicide bombers in Sijariyyah; this area is located east of Ramadi.

In other areas, the ISF recaptured Sakkara, Kilo 120, Kilo 80, and Kilo 60 on the international highway between Iraq and Jordan. According to a source, the international highway is preparing to be reopened after the ISF cleared most of the roads. The ISF was also able to capute Zidariyyah in west Haditha and Al-Niba’yyi last weekend."

Iraqi Army Makes Huge Strides in Northern Baghdad and Fallujah
 
Fight for Fallujah Pt. 2...

Iraqis running out of food and medicine in besieged Falluja
2 Feb.`16 - Tens of thousands of trapped Iraqi civilians are running out of food and medicine in the western city of Falluja, an Islamic State stronghold under siege by security forces, according to local officials and residents.
The Iraqi army, police and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias - backed by air strikes from a U.S.-led coalition - imposed a near total siege late last year on Falluja, located 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad in the Euphrates river valley. The city's population is suffering from a shortage of food, medicine and fuel, residents and officials told Reuters by phone, and media reports said several people had died due to starvation and poor medical care. Insecurity and poor communications inside the city make those reports difficult to verify.

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Members of Iraq's Shi'ite paramilitaries launch a rocket towards Islamic State militants in the outskirts of the city of Falluja, in the province of Anbar, Iraq​

Sohaib al-Rawi, the governor of Anbar province where Falluja is located, appealed to the coalition to air-drop humanitarian supplies to the trapped civilians. He said this was the only way to deliver aid after Islamic State mined the entrances to the city and stopped people leaving. "No force can enter and secure (the delivery) ... There is no option but for airplanes to transport aid," he said in an interview with al-Hadath TV late on Monday, adding the situation was deteriorating by the day.

Falluja - a long-time bastion of Sunni Muslim jihadists - was the first Iraqi city to fall to Islamic State, in January 2014, six months before the group that emerged from al Qaeda swept through large parts of northern and western Iraq and neighboring Syria. Since recapturing the city of Ramadi - a further 50 km to the west - from Islamic State a month ago, Iraqi authorities have not made clear whether they will attempt to take Falluja next or leave it contained while the bulk of their forces head north toward Mosul, the largest city under the militants' control.

'HUGE DETENTION CENTER'
 

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Non-combatants caught in the crossfire...
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U.N.: 10,000 families trapped in Fallujah as Islamic State, Iraqi forces battle
May 24, 2016 -- The United Nations estimates about 10,000 families are trapped inside Fallujah as Iraqi forces continue to fight the Islamic State for control of the city.
About 80 families have fled Fallujah in recent days but thousands remain endangered as the Islamic State has worked to prevent civilians from leaving the city. The United Nations said the estimated 10,000 families trapped in Fallujah are "in a very precarious situation."

The Islamic State has reportedly killed civilians as they attempted to flee the city. The U.N. refugee agency has set up camps near Fallujah to accommodate escaping families. Fleeing families told USA Today that the Islamic State has used civilian hostages as human shields. The city, once populated by about 300,000 people, is now home to about 100,000 after years of war. The United Nations warns that residents face starvation due to food shortages and high prices.

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The Iraqi security forces' offensive to retake Fallujah, supported by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, began on Monday. The offensive is joined by Iraqi counter-terrorism forces, Iraqi police, tribal fighters and the Popular Mobilization Forces Shiite militia group. Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad, has been under Islamic State control since early 2014.

Fallujah is the second-most populated urban territory under Islamic State control -- the first being the city of Mosul. Iraqi security forces launched an offensive to retake Mosul from IS control in March. Mosul is considered one of the most important battles in the fight against the Islamic State.

U.N.: 10,000 families trapped in Fallujah as Islamic State, Iraqi forces battle

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U.N. urges Falluja combatants to let civilians escape fighting
May 24 2016 - The United Nations on Tuesday pleaded with combatants in Iraq's embattled Falluja to protect civilians escaping the fighting as Iraqi forces shelled Islamic State targets in an attempt to retake the militant stronghold just west of the capital.
Earlier the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said a number of women and children had died while trying to leave the city. Over 80 families had managed to escape since May 20, it said in a statement. In New York, a spokesman for the world body issued a public plea on behalf of the nearly 50,000 civilians still in the city. "We're calling on all parties to the conflict to take all measures to protect civilians caught in the middle," Farhan Haq told reporters. "That includes allowing civilians to freely move out of conflict zones and being provided with protection as they disperse."

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Iraqi federal police advance with Shi'ite fighters towards Falluja, Iraq​

He noted that the United Nations has long wanted the international community to join forces and stop the crimes of Islamic State (IS), also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh. But that must not be done at the expense of innocent civilians. "We have been encouraging united international action in the face of the sort of atrocities that have been carried out by Daesh," Haq said. "At the same time ... we urge that all participants in such operations observe international human rights and humanitarian law."

Iraqi forces have surrounded Falluja since last year but focused most combat operations on IS-held territories further west and north. The authorities have pledged to retake Mosul, the north's biggest city, this year in keeping with a U.S. plan to oust Islamic State from their de facto capitals in Iraq and Syria. Falluja is a bastion of Sunni Muslim jihadists 50 km (30 miles) from Baghdad that was the first city to fall to Islamic State in January 2014. About 300,000 people lived in the Euphrates River city before the current war.

U.N. urges Falluja combatants to let civilians escape fighting
 
Slow but steady gets the job done...
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Iraqi military takes a slow approach in battle for Fallujah
Jun 3,`16 -- The battle for Fallujah is shaping up to be unlike any of the other assaults in the Iraqi military's town-by-town war with the Islamic State group.
In the nearly two weeks since the operation began, airstrikes have been used sparingly, Shiite militias have so far been kept to the perimeter, and the initial advance on the symbolically important town has been slow. U.S.-trained Iraqi counterterrorism forces, wary of coming street battles in the city, are already facing fierce resistance on the outskirts from well-entrenched militants. Those fighters are believed to include many foreign jihadis who are considered better-trained that the ones in towns that have been retaken in recent months. In Ramadi - the last major victory for Iraqi forces against IS - many of the militants were able to flee to other strongholds along the Euphrates River valley. Now, all of that territory has been cleared, and the extremists have no escape route from Fallujah. That suggests a long fight for the city less than an hour's drive west of Baghdad.

While Fallujah is smaller in area than Ramadi, an estimated 50,000 people are trapped in the city, twice as many as were in Ramadi when it was recaptured. Aid groups say about 1,000 families have managed to flee the outskirts of Fallujah since the operation began May 22. But the Norwegian Refugee Council, an international humanitarian group that does extensive work in Iraq's Anbar province, says none of the civilians trapped in the center of the city have made it out. Residents have told The Associated Press that IS fighters tightly control all roads in and out of the city and have threatened to kill anyone who tries to escape. "There is a clear difference between the Fallujah and Ramadi operations," said Iraqi military Brig. Haider al-Obeidi.

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Smoke rises after an airstrike by U.S.-led coalition warplanes as Iraqi security forces advance towards Shuhada neighborhood of Fallujah to retake the city from Islamic State militants, Iraq,​

The terrain is a challenge, he said, because the outskirts are dotted with orchards and irrigation canals that give IS fighters working in small mobile units an advantage over the slow-moving convoys of armored vehicles The fighters his men are encountering are better trained than those in pervious battles, al-Obeidi said. Military commanders are reporting larger numbers of foreign fighters in Fallujah. "Their snipers are smart, they hit essential parts of the bulldozers' engines and Humvees' wheels," he said. Repairing them takes time and slows advances, and the forces have not received any new weaponry or additional training that would help, al-Obeidi said.

The troops have few options beyond trying to protect their units from IS counterattacks, he said. As streets are cleared, they plan to erect roadblocks to guard against suicide car bombs, one of the deadliest IS tactics. Iraqi forces are continuing to move forward, snaking through the desert on Fallujah's southern edge. Smoke rose Friday from a cluster of factories and industrial buildings in the area. On the city's northeastern edge, Shiite militia forces fired mortar rounds into the city from suburbs cleared by Iraqi federal police. Another big concern in the assault is the tension between Sunnis and Shiites. Fallujah, part of the Sunni heartland of western Iraq, has long been a bastion of bitterness toward the Shiite-led central government in Baghdad that emerged after the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

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Why It's Taking The Iraqi Military So Long To Defeat ISIS In Fallujah...
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Why The Iraqi Military Has Taken So Long To Defeat Islamic State Group In Fallujah
6/22/16 - It’s been two years, but the battle for Fallujah is not over.
After the Iraqi security forces announced victory there last weekend, the U.S. said that only a third of the city, in Iraq's western Anbar province, had been cleared of Islamic State group militants. The main obstacle for a clean win is money — or a lack of it. More than two years of fighting has taken its toll on the U.S.-backed coalition fighting the group known as ISIS. And, at a cost of billions of dollars, it's one of the most expensive conflicts since the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011. The fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria comes with a hefty price tag of $11.5 million a day. The U.S. alone has pledged $5.3 billion to fight ISIS in 2016, about 1 percent of the total defense budget, while the Iraqi economy is carrying the burden of a military spend that makes up a fifth of its annual budget.

On the other side of the battlefield are ISIS fighters who are funded not only by the profits from captured oil fields in Iraq and Syria but also by wealthy Gulf businessmen, a 2015 investigation by International Business Times revealed. A combination of money and willful blindness has ensured that Sunni businessmen in the Gulf, who are funding ISIS through Sunni tribesmen intermediaries, go almost unchallenged, Eissa al-Issawi, the head of Fallujah's local council, told IBT. The tribal leaders provide ISIS with intelligence, cash and weapons that help the group stave off U.S.-backed Iraqi military forces and maintain the upper hand in battle.

Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq’s former national security advisor under former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said a number of the government offices in Anbar province’s cities, including Fallujah, transfer money directly to the militants. Although it is difficult to know the precise sums that are flowing to the remaining militants in Fallujah, the Iraqi government knows it’s up against a cash machine with no foreseeable end, as long as ties between the Gulf and Anbar remain. That's why the Iraqi military, advised by the U.S. government, is using its highly equipped, elite operation force to lead the Anbar campaign. Some 1500 members of the counterterrorism unit are involved in direct combat, along with around 10,000 local soldiers and 8,000 members of the police force, many of whom are from local tribes.

The CT, as it is known on the ground, answers directly to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The unit combines elements of the Iraqi army’s special operations forces with units of the interior ministry’ federal police. They are the most highly skilled and well-equipped soldiers in all of Iraq, which makes them the most valuable fighters on the battlefield. In addition to receiving funding from coalition pledges and training from the U.S. marines, CT has access to a $19 billion fund that was established at the end of the Iraq war. But the losses of battle are costly -- in Ramadi, Anbar's provincial capital, the force lost more than 200 armored Humvees, which cost $9.4 million to replace. As the premier fighting unit, CT calls first dibs on cash coming in from the U.S. and the coalition, leaving the remainder --Shiite paramilitary forces, local tribesmen and the national police force -- to divvy up the rest among themselves.

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Iraqis return to Fallujah...
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Iraqi Families Return to Ravaged Homes in Fallujah
Sept. 18, 2016 - City is left with destroyed buildings and deep social scars after being under Islamic State control
The first Iraqi families returned over the weekend to broken homes and businesses in Fallujah nearly three months after the country’s military drove out Islamic State fighters, in a resettling process mired in tensions. Those who returned came home to an empty city with destroyed buildings and no electricity or running water. While some families who have returned expressed hope and vowed to rebuild their homes and businesses, others said the militants had cut deep into their social fabric, sowing suspicion between neighbors that is unlikely to go away. “Life will not go back the way it was,” said Abu Ahmed as he awaited clearance to re-enter the city. “It is impossible...without real tribal and national reconciliation.”

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Displaced Iraqis return to their homes in Fallujah​

Fallujah was the first major city to fall to Islamic State ahead of a 2014 offensive by the extremist group that saw it take over about a third of the country. Iraq’s military in June wrested control of the city, which lies 40 miles west of Baghdad. Giving Fallujah back to its residents has been a priority for Iraq’s government but a July order by the city’s tribal leaders that was adopted by the local government prevents families of people suspected of Islamic State ties from returning—complicating the resettlement efforts. Only 21 families have returned in two days. Fallujah remained largely populated during the occupation by Islamic State, which led to perceptions that the city’s mostly Sunni residents had welcomed the militancy. A campaign to free the city that ended in June saw almost 100,000 people flee.

Those wanting to return must now clear screening by about five security agencies tasked with weeding out Islamic State sympathizers. Politicians and rights groups criticized the policy as divisive and difficult to enforce. Iraqi society is already struggling with sectarianism and severe disunity since the American invasion in 2003. That has worsened under the Islamic State threat. Col. Abdul Aziz Faisal Hamad, a police commander overseeing the screening process, acknowledged that Islamic State left behind deep social scars. “Daesh has deeply negatively affected the social fabric of Fallujah and other areas,” he said, using another name for the group.

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Shakib Al Kobaisi, holding his son, was thrilled to return to Fallujah after fleeing three years ago but appeared shaken when he saw his house. It was caked in dust and broken glass, and rooms had been ransacked​

While Fallujah was spared the near total destruction other freed areas suffered, it hardly resembles a place that is ready to be inhabited. On Saturday, officials decorated checkpoints and the few standing light poles with plastic yellow and red roses and Iraqi flags. Some work crews were repairing downed cables. Dozens of military and police personnel and local government officials clamored for time in front of television cameras to greet the first seven families who were allowed back in. What happens in Fallujah is an important test for Mosul, the largest city under Islamic State control where an impending offensive could displace some one million people.

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