Iraqi Volunteer Forces Uncover Biggest Tunnel Used by Daesh near Fallujah

General Saad Harbiya, head of Fallujah operations for the Iraqi army, said keeping civilians safe is a priority.

“We are receiving distressing reports of civilians trapped inside Falluja who are desperate to escape to safety, but can’t”, United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Iraq Lisa Grande said on Wednesday.

Several military commanders and Baghdad’s partners in the US-led coalition had recommended focusing efforts on liberating Mosul first but observers say lauching the Fallujah operation offered the embattled Abadi some political reprieve.

The Iraqi army has surrounded Fallujah since late past year along with police and Shi’ite militants.

In a statement on Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the “liberation of al-Karma” as he congratulated the people of Iraq and ordered security forces to protect civilians.

Iraqi forces are going slow while advancing on Islamic State fighters controlling the iconic city of Falluja in a battle long postponed by Baghdad.

The biggest divide is between the Iraqi regular armed forces, including two brigades of special forces who usually act as assault troops, and the Hashd, most of whom belong to Shia paramilitary movements, though there are also Sunni units.

The first phase of the offensive that started on Monday is almost finished, with the complete encirclement of the city that lies 50km west of the Iraqi capital, said Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Iranian-backed Badr Organization.

The ISIS commander in the city, Maher Al Bilawi, was killed in bombardments targeting ISIS fighter positions and gun emplacements, Col Warren said.

Anti-government fighters seized Fallujah in early 2014, and the city later became an IS stronghold.

“Food has been in very short supply we are hearing accounts that people are relying on expired rice and dried dates and that’s about it for their diet”.

“If they stay in Falluja they face possible starvation, if they try to escape they risk being killed getting out”, NRC media coordinator Becky Bakr Abdulla said in a report, citing refugee accounts.

There has been no reference to the toll among Iraqi forces in the operation.

Nasr Muflahi, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s country director in Iraq, spoke to Susy Hodges about the “dire” situation facing Fallujah’s trapped civilians.

The recapture of Karma, about 16 kilometers (10 miles) northeast of Falluja, brings most of the territory east of Falluja under government control.

Along Syria’s border with Turkey, an ISIS offensive in the Aleppo province left at least another 100,000 people stranded, rights groups and activists said.