Iraqi forces face little resistance from Isis as they retake Fallujah

After weeks of fighting, Iraqi forces entered central areas of Fallujah on Friday, facing little resistance by the Islamic State, as thousands of civilians fled in a new wave of displacement that has overwhelmed the ability of aid agencies to care for them.

Counterterrorism forces raised the Iraqi flag over the main government building in central Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad, and they moved on to besiege the city's main hospital, which was the first target of US forces when they invaded the city in 2004, according to officers and news reports on state television.

The rapid, and unexpected, gains suggested a shift in tactics by the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State, also known as Isis, or perhaps a sign of their weakness, as they abandoned their dug-in positions and regrouped in western neighbourhoods. That allowed thousands of civilians, which aid groups had said were being held as human shields, to flee across two bridges over the Euphrates River beginning on Thursday.

Even as the battle appeared far from over, Iraqi commanders on the ground were optimistic that the advance, which had slowed in the face of Islamic State snipers, roadside bombs and tunnel networks that allowed fighters to move around undetected, would continue.

“Isis has lost its power to defend Fallujah,” Col Jamal Lateef, a police commander in Anbar province, said in an interview. “Its defensive lines have collapsed, and the battle of Fallujah will be over in no time.” Lt Gen Adbulwahab al-Saadi, a commander of Iraq’s counterterrorism forces who is in charge of the Fallujah operation, said in a brief telephone interview that, “Isis has collapsed in Fallujah very fast,” and he said his forces were moving to northern and western neighbourhoods.

The United States, which has led a coalition targeting the Islamic State with air strikes for almost two years in Iraq, has supported the battle for Fallujah with air power, even as it has raised concerns about the role of Shiite militias backed by Iran in the fight.

Fallujah has been in the hands of the Islamic State since the end of 2013, longer than any other settlement in its so-called caliphate that straddles parts of Iraq and Syria. Lise Grande, the United Nations' humanitarian coordinator for Iraq, said she was receiving reports that perhaps 10,000 families, or 60,000 people, were on the move toward government-held areas of western Anbar province, where camps for the displaced are already overwhelmed and lack basic supplies, such as tents and clean drinking water.

– (New York Times)