Iraqi troops clear IS mines as battle for Fallujah continues

Iraqi forces have made rapid gains in Fallujah, Iraq, and opened a second front in the ISIS stronghold of Mosul, while USA -backed Syrian forces have made significant advances as well.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday declared victory over the Islamic State in Fallujah after a day of rapid advances as security forces pushed deep into the city center, dislodging the militants who have controlled it for almost 2 1/2 years. The militants overran the city in early 2014, the first urban area to fall into its hands before it overran most of Anbar and much of northern Iraq. Troops later captured the Dubbat neighborhood, he said.

Iraqi forces opened a second front, eyeing Mosul, an ISIS stronghold.

“The operation aims to recapture Qayara, which is an important area due to the presence of a military base there”, he said.

This marks the most recent in a string of territorial victories for the Iraqi security forces, which recently retook the city of Ramadi in January, after “months of battling” IS fighters. The group still controls Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, in the north.

Counter-terrorism forces took control of Fallujah hospital, and were clearing the eastern al-Dhubat neighborhood, a military statement said. Backed with air support from the US-led coalition and Iraqi air force, the troops were able to move into the center at around 6 a.m.

Iraq launched a major operation on May 23 to retake Fallujah, a bastion of the Sunni Muslim insurgency against US forces that toppled Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003, and Shiite-led governments that followed.

The International Organization for Migration said on Saturday more than 81,000 people had been displaced by the fighting in Falluja, which had a population about three times that size before the Islamic State seizure in early 2014. Tents had run out, and food and water supplies were dangerously low. During the offensive, Daesh resorted to hostage taking among the trapped civilians, using them as human shields to slow down the army advances.

The troops are ordered to take Qayyara and the nearby airport which will be used by the troops as a base to liberate Mosul, the source said.

Military operations were ongoing in Fallujah, with the air force hitting targets in the city including IS snipers positioned near the main hospital, Brig.

Security forces have “tightened their control inside the city and there are still some pockets that need to be cleansed in the coming hours”, he said in a brief speech on state television. The desert route also leads the troops further away from the Makhoul mountains east of Baiji, from which ISIL has been launching mortars in and around the town for months. A number of human rights organizations have expressed concern for the fallout from the battle for Falluja, including the United Nations, which issued a warning on June 1, 2016, that an estimated 20,000 children were at risk and “coming under fire” due to the violence between government forces and the Islamic State. Before the battle began, only 700 Islamic State militants had been estimated to be inside.