Iraq stalls Falluja assault 'to protect
civilians'
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[June 01, 2016]
By Maher Nazeh
SOUTHERN OUTSKIRTS OF FALLUJA, Iraq
(Reuters) - Iraq has delayed its assault on the city of Falluja because
of fears for the safety of civilians, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
said on Wednesday, as his forces halted at the city's edge in the face
of ferocious resistance from Islamic State fighters.
Abadi's decision to halt, two days after elite Iraqi troops poured
into the city's rural southern outskirts, postpones what was
expected to be one of the biggest battles ever fought against
Islamic State.
The government, backed by world powers including the United States
and Iran, has vowed to win back the first major Iraqi city that fell
to the group in 2014.
"It would have been possible to end the battle quickly if protecting
civilians wasn't among our priorities," Abadi told military
commanders at the operations room near the frontline in footage
broadcast on state television. "Thank God, our units are at the
outskirts of Falluja and victory is within reach."
Falluja has been a bastion of the Sunni insurgency that fought both
the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Shi'ite-led Baghdad government.
Islamic State fighters raised their flag there in 2014 before
sweeping through much of Iraq's north and west.
Abadi first announced plans to assault Falluja 10 days ago. But with
50,000 civilians still believed trapped inside the city, the United
Nations has warned that militants are holding hundreds of families
in the center as human shields.
After heavy resistance from Islamic State fighters, the troops have
not moved over the past 48 hours, keeping their positions in
Falluja's mainly rural southern suburb of Naimiya, according to a
Reuters TV crew reporting from the area.
Explosions from shelling and air strikes as well as heavy gunfire
could be heard on Wednesday morning in the city that lies 50 km (30
miles) west of Baghdad.
Falluja is the second-largest Iraqi city still under control of the
Sunni militants, after Mosul, their de facto capital in the north
that had a pre-war population of about 2 million.
Abadi's initial decision to assault Falluja appears to have gone
against the plans of his U.S. allies, who would prefer the
government concentrate on Mosul, rather than risk getting bogged
down in a potentially drawn out fight for a smaller, potentially
hostile Sunni Muslim stronghold like Falluja.
"You do not need Falluja in order to get Mosul," a spokesman for a
U.S.-led anti-IS coalition, U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren, said in
a phone interview ten days ago when the government first announced
its plans to recapture Falluja.
However, Falluja is Islamic State's closest bastion to Baghdad,
believed to be the base from which militants have staged a campaign
of suicide bombings in the capital that has increased pressure on
Abadi to act to improve security.
[to top of second column] |
BAGHDAD BOMBS PRESSURE ABADI
Abadi, a member of Iraq's Shi'ite majority, is trying to hold a
ruling coalition together in the face of public protests against an
entrenched political class. He has called for politicians to set
aside differences and rally behind the army during the Falluja
offensive.
Falluja would be the third major city in Iraq recaptured by the
government after former dictator Saddam Hussein's home town Tikrit
and Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's vast western Anbar province.
Falluja lies in Anbar on the highway from Baghdad to Ramadi, and
capturing it would give the government control of the main
population centers of the fertile Euphrates River valley west of the
capital for the first time in two years.
The United States is leading a coalition conducting air strikes in
support of the Iraqi government offensive, and says it is having
success in rolling back Islamic State both in Iraq and in Syria.
Shi'ite militia groups backed by Iran are also taking part in the
offensive against Islamic State, but say they are holding back from
participating in the main assault on Falluja to avoid inflaming
sectarian tension.
"EXTREME VIOLENCE"
Although most of Falluja's population is believed to have fled
during six months of siege, 50,000 people are still thought to be
trapped inside with limited access to food, water or healthcare. The
United Nations' children's agency on Wednesday said at least 20,000
children remain in Falluja.
"We are concerned over the protection of children in the face of
extreme violence," UNICEF Representative in Iraq Peter Hawkins said
in a statement.
"Children face the risk of forced recruitment into the fighting"
inside the besieged city, and "separation from their families" if
they manage to leave, he added.
The World Food Programme said the humanitarian situation in the city
was worsening as family food stocks were depleting, pushing prices
to a level few can afford.
"The city is inaccessible for assistance and market distribution
systems remain offline," the WFP said. "The only food available does
not come from the markets, but from the stocks that some families
still have in their homes."
(writing by Maher Chmaytelli and Peter Millership; editing by Peter
Graff)
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