Aid group: 2-year-old boy killed as he fled Iraq’s Fallujah

Iraqi forces recaptured the government compound in Fallujah from Islamic State occupiers Friday and said they were close to taking back the entire city. “The security forces control nearly the entire city except for small hotspots, which will be eliminated in the coming hours”, Abadi said in a televised speech to the nation.

Since 2014, a number of sectarian militias, collectively known as the Popular Mobilisation Forces or al-Hashd al-Shaabi, has played a major role in assisting the Iraqi armed forces in the fight against ISIS. “We were thousands leaving the city…when we reached the armed forces we were given food and water but the army trucks transporting families to the camps were full”.

More than three million Iraqis have fled their homes since a lightning Isis offensive in 2014 saw swathes of the country fall into jihadist control. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

Elite federal forces met limited resistance from Isis fighters, who are redeploying on the western outskirts of the city, military commanders said.

Tens of thousands of civilians are still believed to be trapped in the center, some of them being used as human shields by the Islamic State group.

Those people that have turned up were tortured, with many dying of their wounds.

Aid groups estimate that 50,000 civilians remain trapped inside Fallujah, which has been under ISIS control for over two years.

Nasr Muflahi, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Country Director in Iraq, called for more global aid to help those fleeing Fallujah.

Government forces, with air support from the US -led coalition, launched a major operation on May 23 to retake Fallujah, an historic bastion of the Sunni Muslim insurgency against USA forces that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003, and the Shia-led governments that followed. The Shiite militias are not inside the city, but are arrayed in positions around it, according to the Pentagon.

Fallujah had been under the Islamic State’s grasp for longer than any other city in the region.

Jumaa al-Jumaili, a commander of local Sunni forces, told the Washington Post that the assault would meet bitter resistance.

The United Nations has said that about 42,000 people have fled since the military operation against Fallujah began in late May.

Since the USA invasion of Iraq in 2003, Fallujah has been a hotspot for the extremist insurgency. They have largely been staying in camps in areas around the city.

There were a few years of relative calm starting in 2006 when local tribes allied themselves with US forces against al-Qaida in the so-called Sahwa – or Awakening – movement.

Enemies of Islamic State have launched major offensives against the jihadists on other fronts, including a thrust by US -backed forces against the city of Manbij in northern Syria. The refugees have strained the government’s ability to supply them with aid. Those who follow the news they know very well and we know what kind of news channels are doing this.