Iraqi Troops Enter Central Fallujah in Anti-Daesh Offensive – Spokesman

“While the Iraqi security forces have a legitimate interest in vetting individuals fleeing ISIL-controlled areas to ensure they do not pose a risk to security or to identify individuals who may have committed crimes, such vetting must only be carried out by entities [sic] authorized to do so by Iraqi law”, he added.

“We are now at the gates of Fallujah”, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy leader of the Popular Mobilisation Forces, told a news conference broadcast on state TV.

Last month, the Iraqi army, backed by U.S.-led coalition air power, began a major military offensive aimed at retaking the western city.

Iraqi forces are trying to retake the city without destroying it or worsening a burgeoning humanitarian crisis, according to military officials.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Islamic State, a Sunni extremist group, often targets Iraq’s Shiite majority.

While a number of different Iraqi forces are participating in the fight for Fallujah, only Iraq’s counterterrorism troops are actually entering the city. These casualty figures are said to be considered as an absolute minimum as they do not include Anbar Province, where Fallujah is located, and also do not include people who died from secondary effects of violence, such as lack of water, food, medicines or health care.

Those civilians who have managed to escape have run a gauntlet of gunfire from Isil militants desperate to keep as many “human shields” inside the city as possible.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi promised a swift victory when he announced the start of the operation on May 22 to liberate Fallujah, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad.

‘We have underestimated how many civilians are in Fallujah, ‘ Grande said.

That southern neighbourhood of Naymiyah, which was secured by Iraqi forces on Sunday, bears the scars of a protracted fight, a now-common sight in Iraqi territory that has been won back from IS.

He said the operation to free the neighborhood had taken more than 48 hours as soldiers removed mines and explosives that ISIS left in its wake.

Numerous camps have been set up near the city to accommodate displaced residents.

He said “any real result” from the fighting would be expected in the coming weeks.

In a statement Tuesday from his office in Geneva, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein 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.