Major Firefight Erupts Outside of Fallujah

[janeeng]

Well, guess we still need to kick some major ass. Seems there are still some little brown people who still want to follow in Hussein's shoes. Time to open the can and end this once and for all.

 

[jimnyc]

There are plenty of insurgents left over there. Mostly what is left over of Saddam's regime and religious fanatics. This IS NOT the Iraqi people speaking, contrary to what Spillmind would have you believe.

So, I have no remorse in saying I hope the bastards all die.

 

[janeeng]

hahahahahahaha!!!!!!!

 

[waltky]

U.S. not happy with Shia's fightin' the Sunni's...

Iran-Led Push to Retake Falluja From ISIS Worries US
MAY 28, 2016 — American commandos are on the front lines in Syria in a new push toward the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Raqqa, but in Iraq it is an entirely different story: Iran, not the United States, has become the face of an operation to retake the jihadist stronghold of Falluja from the militant group.

On the outskirts of Falluja, tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, police officers and Shiite militiamen backed by Iran are preparing for an assault on the Sunni city, raising fears of a sectarian blood bath. Iran has placed advisers, including its top spymaster, Qassim Suleimani, on the ground to assist in the operation. The battle over Falluja has evolved into yet another example of how United States and Iranian interests seemingly converge and clash at the same time in Iraq. Both want to defeat the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. But the United States has long believed that Iran’s role, which relies on militias accused of sectarian abuses, can make matters worse by angering Sunnis and making them more sympathetic to the militants.

While the battle against the Islamic State straddles the borders of Iraq and Syria, the United States has approached it as two separate fights. In Syria, where the government of Bashar al-Assad is an enemy, America’s ally is the Kurds. But in Iraq, where the United States backs the central government, and trains and advises the Iraqi Army, it has been limited by the role of Iran, the most powerful foreign power inside the country. That United States dilemma is on full display in Falluja as the fighting intensifies. Inside the city, tens of thousands of Sunni civilians are trapped, starving and lacking medicine, according to activists and interviews with residents. Some were shot dead by the Islamic State as they tried to flee, and others died under buildings that collapsed under heavy military and militia artillery bombardment in recent days, according to the United Nations.

The few civilians who have made it to safety have escaped at night, traveling through the irrigation pipes. In an extraordinary statement on Wednesday, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the world’s pre-eminent Shiite religious leader, who lives in Najaf in southern Iraq and is said to be concerned by Iran’s growing role in Iraq, urged security forces and militia to restrain themselves and abide by “the standard behaviors of jihad.” The grim sectarian tableau in Falluja — starving Sunni civilians trapped in a city surrounded by a mostly Shiite force — provides the backdrop to a final assault that Iraqi officials have promised will come soon.

The United States has thousands of military personnel in Iraq and has trained Iraqi security forces for nearly two years, yet is largely on the sidelines in the battle to retake Falluja. It says its air and artillery strikes have killed dozens of Islamic State fighter, including the group’s Falluja commander. But it worries that an assault on the city could backfire — inflaming the same sectarian sentiments that have allowed the Islamic State to flourish there. Already, as the army and militiamen battled this past week in outlying areas, taking some villages and the center of the city of Karma, to the northeast, the fight has taken on sectarian overtones. Militiamen have plastered artillery shells with the name of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a Shiite cleric close to Iran whose execution this year by Saudi Arabia, a Sunni power, deepened the region’s sectarian divide, before firing them at Falluja.

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[waltky]

The clock is ticking in effort to save Fallujah residents...

'Race against time' to save thousands of refugees from war-torn Falluja
Tue June 7, 2016 - Aid workers face a "race against time" to provide critical support to Falluja residents who have managed to flee the violence that has engulfed their city, according to a group of NGOs led by UNICEF.

As Iraqi forces attempt to wrest back control from ISIS, the World Food Program (WFP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the World Health Organization (WHO) joined UNICEF in releasing a statement, saying that a fact-finding mission to displaced persons camps showed safe drinking water, food rations, and hygiene and sanitation assistance are urgently needed. Around 60,000 people are now living in the temporary camps, facilities that are "overstretched," with little capacity to expand.

Iraqis who fled Falluja describe life under ISIS​

The U.N.-led mission found people "sheltering in tents or huddled in whatever shade they could find to escape the searing heat and blowing dust," the statement read. "Most people fled with just their clothes, and many families had been separated from male members who were undergoing screening. One woman approached the mission team members and asked for help, saying: 'We came with nothing, we have nothing,' which characterizes the situation of thousands of other people in the camps." As the battle for Falluja intensifies, an estimated 50,000 people, including 20,000 children, are trapped between opposing fighters, according to the United Nations. Residents of the city, which has been under siege for months, have had to cope with "acute" shortages of food, medicine and other basic services, such as water supplies, it added.

Falluja residents: 'Immense' suffering

Falluja, which lies 65 km (40 miles) from the capital Baghdad, has been held by the militant group since 2014, and is the subject of a concerted push to retake ISIS-controlled territory across Iraq and Syria. The U.N. statement also highlighted the parlous security situation in the region, noting that the front lines are mere miles away from the camps. "The people of Fallujah have suffered immensely under Da'esh," Jan Kubis, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS. "Many of them are on the move, further risking their lives to escape the terrorist group and the fighting, and are desperately in need of safe shelter. They should not be subjected to further suffering and intimidation."

NGO: ISIS targeting civilians

In addition to life-threatening conditions facing those who make it to the camps, the route out of the city is fraught with danger. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Falluja residents who try to flee have been shot and killed by militants while attempting to cross the Euphrates River to safety. One woman who had escaped the city had told the NRC that she had seen a young girl drown in the river. Her family tried to send her and two other children across the river in an open refrigerator, but it sank, the NRC said, citing the woman's account. "On the third week of the intense fighting over Falluja, we are still receiving dreadful stories from civilians who have risked their lives trying to flee to safety," said Nasr Muflahi, the NRC's country director in Iraq. "We remain extremely concerned for the lives of civilians trapped in the crossfire both inside Falluja, and on their way trying to escape the bullets and bombs."

Ground gained

See also:

Both sides accused of torture, execution in Fallujah fight
June 7, 2016 - As Iraqi security forces tighten their grip on the outskirts of militant-held Fallujah allegations of human rights violations are surfacing on both sides of the operation.

The U.N. human rights chief also cited "extremely distressing, credible reports" that Iraqis fleeing Fallujah are facing physical abuse and even cases of summary executions as they escape the city held by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants. On Monday, hundreds of civilians, many bearing marks of torture were released north of Fallujah after being detained by a group of government sanctioned mostly Shiite militias. Five of those detained died while in the group's custody according to Yahya al-Muhamadi, an Anbar council member working with displaced civilians.

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein on Tuesday cited witness accounts that armed groups backing Iraqi security forces have detained some men and teenage boys leaving Fallujah with force that at times "degenerates" into abuse. Zeid acknowledged that Iraqi forces have a "legitimate interest in vetting individuals fleeing" ISIS-controlled areas to make sure they don't pose a security risk, but said official authorities should do so. He said those fleeing must be presumed to be civilians, barring "clear and cogent evidence to the contrary." He urged the Iraqi government to take steps to ensure the protection of civilians. The militia forces, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, are one of a number of different Iraqi security forces participating in the operation to retake Fallujah ISIS, which has controlled it for more than two years.

The Popular Mobilization Forces deny that their fighters detain civilians. "We are not authorized to detain anyone, we are just helping to move displaced people," said Hayder Mayahii, an official with the PMF's media office based outside Fallujah. Mayahii said his office was aware of the reports, but said they were completely false and the product of media bias. The Popular Mobilization Forces illegally detained 605 people, al-Muhamadi the Anbar councilman said. "They tortured many of them, five people died from the torture."

Al-Muhamadi spoke as he oversaw the registration of hundreds of newly displaced civilians along the main road to the east of Fallujah. Late Monday night a dozen mini busses were packed with tired families from Saqlawiya and other neighborhoods north of Fallujah recently retaken from ISIS by Iraqi forces. Local and federal Iraqi police regularly detain men and teenage boys from territory retaken from ISIS. The practice is part of a legal screening process to prevent ISIS fighters from escaping among the civilians, al-Muhamadi said. In the row of mini buses on the road east of Fallujah, every family had been separated from all their male relatives over the age of 15. Iraqi security officials completing the registration process say the screening should only take three to five days and families will be quickly reunited.

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