Iraq forces face tough IS resistance on fringes of Fallujah
Iraqi forces have been sealing off the city for months and those still in city have nowhere to go.
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Iraqi forces faced tough resistance from the Islamic State group Tuesday as they attempted to enter the centre of Fallujah, where there were mounting fears for thousands of trapped civilians.
A day after announcing a push into the militant bastion, forces led by Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism service had some way to go before retaking the city.
After thrusting toward Fallujah from three directions on Monday, their biggest advance was from the south, where they pushed into the suburb of Naimiyah.
Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi, the overall commander of the Fallujah operation, said IS fighters mounted a fierce counter-attack on the area early on Tuesday.
"There were around 100 fighters involved, they came at us heavily armed but did not use car bombs or suicide bombers," he told AFP.
Saadi said Iraqi forces in the area, which also include police and army units, were eventually able to repel the attack, killing 75 militants.
He did not give a figure for losses on the pro-government side.
Provincial councillor Rajeh Barakat said Iraqi forces had now resumed their advance from Naimiyah.
"The attack was repelled with air support from the international coalition and Iraqi aircraft," he said.
Fallujah was lost from government control months before IS swept across large parts of Iraq in June 2014 and is an emblematic bastion for the militant group.
Iraqi forces have been sealing off the city for months and those still in city -- IS fighters and civilians alike -- have nowhere to go.
No safe exits
A Fallujah resident contacted by AFP by telephone said many civilians were eager to see the security forces recapture the city but that there was fear of what the militants might do as defeat loomed.
"There is some discontent among the people because we haven’t seen the Iraqi forces enter the centre yet," said the resident, who gave his name as Abu Mohammed al-Dulaimi.
"Their treatment of the people is getting worse and worse every day. There is a feeling of panic among them it seems.
"Daesh is angry because they don’t feel supported and they have been seen insulting people on the streets, shouting things like: ‘Cowards, you are not with us’," he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.
Stuck between intensifying bombardment by pro-government forces on the one hand and increasingly desperate militants on the other, Dulaimi said the situation for residents was worse than ever.
"Yesterday, they were rounding up young men from several parts of the city -- we think maybe around 100 of them -- and taking them to an unknown location," he said.
Officers in the Iraqi forces say IS has been forcibly recruiting men and ever younger boys to man its defence of Fallujah.
Thousands of civilians have escaped IS-controlled areas since the start of the operation to retake the city on May 22-23 but nearly all of them were from outlying areas.
The 50,000 civilians still believed trapped in the city centre would have to dodge booby-traps laid by IS to defend the city and incoming shelling from pro-government forces to reach safety.
"Civilians are trapped inside the city of Fallujah as fighting intensifies. With every moment that passes, their need for safe exits becomes more critical," said the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Iraq director, Nasr Muflahi.
IS has come under mounting pressure on the battlefield in recent weeks, with Kurdish forces also gaining ground in the north in a two-day operation that wound up on Monday east of Mosul, the militants’ other urban bastion in Iraq.
On the back foot in Iraq, IS has tried to retain the initiative in neighbouring Syria with a sweeping offensive in the north of Aleppo province along the Turkish border.
That fighting too has trapped tens of thousands of civilians.
"These people are now in a very small area of four by seven kilometres (two and a half miles by four and a half)," said Pablo Marco, regional head of Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
"The situation is absolutely unsustainable and unacceptable for this population."
