Alwaght- Iraqi forces on Wednesday liberated ten areas from the ISIS terrorist group control in eastern Fallujah, 62 km west of Baghdad.
The Federal Police Command said in a statement that, “The Federal Police forces managed to liberate the areas of Naif Ali, Subaihat, al-Lahib, al-Sahwa, Albu Ayad, local council in Karma, al-Harariyat, al-Layfiya, Shihabi, Jamila and Albu Hadid.” The statement added, “The security forces are still advancing firmly to liberate other areas.”
Elsewhere, Iraqi soldiers and allied volunteer fighters have pushed towards Fallujah from areas to the south as part of an operation to liberate the city from the grip of the ISIS Takfiri terrorist group, says a commander.
Staff Major General Ismail al-Mahalawi, the head of the Anbar Operations Command, said on Wednesday that forces from Iraq's 8th Division, backed by tribal fighters, set out from the city of Amriyat al-Fallujah, south of Fallujah, and the al-Salam intersection to its southwest.
The offensive is being supported by air cover, Mahalawi added.
Meanwhile, terrorists are using civilians as human shields and executing those trying to flee or surrender to slow down the Iraqi Army’s operation to recapture Fallujah. The country security forces are following a special plan to avoid unnecessary civilian loses. Iraq's senior Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has urged restraint in the Fallujah battle, calling on the Iraqi forces to spare civilians trapped in the city.
According to United Nations estimates, there are about 60,000 to 100,000 civilians remaining in Fallujah. On Sunday, the Iraqi government deployed at least 20,000 troops and Popular Mobilization Forces to combat extremists, and told residents to flee the city ahead of the operation, that was launched the following day.
Fallujah became in January 2014 the first Iraqi city to be captured by ISIS, six months before the Takfiri group declared its caliphate.
The city on the Euphrates River had a prewar population of about 300,000 and is known as the City of Minarets and Mother of Mosques.
