Fallujah assault: Iraq PM announces beginning of military operation

Fallujah assault: Iraq PM announces beginning of military operation

The besieged city that is said to be “starving to death” under IS control, could soon be free

By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST News Service

IRAQ (ANS – May 22, 2016) -- The besieged Iraqi city of Fallujah, that is said to be “starving to death” under Islamic State (IS) control, could soon be free.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has announced the start of a military operation to retake Fallujah from the IS terror group.

“Zero hour for the liberation of Fallujah has arrived. The moment of great victory has drawn near and Daesh [IS] has no choice but to flee,” he said.

The BBC says that Iraq’s military has already warned civilians to leave the town.

Fallujah was the first city to fall to IS in 2014 and is one of only two of its remaining strongholds in Iraq.

“The Iraqi military told state TV that those who could not flee should raise a white flag above their homes,” said the BBC. “The military, police and volunteer fighters virtually surround the city, about 40 miles) west of Baghdad.”

The Baghdad-based pro-Kurdish news website Shafaq said on Sunday that close to 20,000 police troops had arrived on the outskirts of Fallujah ahead of the expected assault.

The BBC's Middle East correspondent, Jim Muir, said between 60,000-90,000 civilians remained in Fallujah. Many of them are family members of IS fighters, he said.

However, there are still a handful of Christians left in the city, but most have left and are now “living” in refugee camps.

IS militants launched a sweeping offensive in June 2014 that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad, but security forces and allied fighters have pushed the jihadists back with support from US-led air strikes.

For those who have been trapped in Fallujah, life has literally been a living hell.

According to Florence Taylor, a Staff Writer for Christian Today (http://www.christiantoday.com), “Many residents are hungry, malnourished and unwell. Tens of thousands of civilians from an original population of over 300,000 remain in the city.

“ISIS prohibits use of mobile phones and the Internet, so it is difficult to access residents of the city. HRW (Human Rights Watch) was able to speak with one person living there and to seven others from the area in contact with residents.”

She added that a Facebook account “Fallujahh is my city” posted a video on March 23 showing several lifeless bodies in a body of water. Included among them was a mother who drowned herself and her two starving children, as she could not feed them.”

She said that residents of the city are unable to escape. An Iraqi lawyer who was in contact with people in Fallujahh told HRW that ISIS executed a man for trying to leave on March 21.

“He walked straight up to the ISIS checkpoint and told them he wanted to leave because he couldn't take the situation any longer. ISIS brought him into town and executed him,” said the lawyer.

“Islamic State has shown utter disregard for protecting civilians in conflict,” said Stork. “It should not add mass starvation to its miserable record and should immediately allow civilians to leave Fallujahh.”

Last month, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch warned civilians still living in Fallujah were in danger of starvation.

The World Food Program said stocks were dwindling as government forces trying to recapture the city had cut supply routes, and IS had stopped people from leaving.

Some residents were eating grass to survive, HRW said.

A Ghost Town

Fox News says that Two years after Fallujahh became one of the first prizes claimed by ISIS, the Iraqi city is a ghost town where fearful residents turn on one another and resistance is met with unspeakable brutality, according to sources trapped inside the Pittsburgh-sized community…”

The sources, who spoke by phone with FoxNews.com, painted a bleak picture of life under an increasingly brutal and desperate IS, as it prepares for an expected assault by Iraqi government forces. Backed by coalition air power and aided by Shia militias, Baghdad has already liberated nearby Ramadi from ISIS, but plans to retake Fallujahh fell apart in the latter half of last year when the risk of civilian casualties was deemed too great.

“An uneasy alliance of government forces, Shia militias and Sunni tribal units are now skirmishing with ISIS on the city’s outskirts, signaling the pending -- and likely bloody -- campaign.”

Little information has trickled out from Fallujahh since it was seized by ISIS in January 2014. The terrorists have informants throughout Fallujahh’s population, which once stood at 320,000, but is now unknown, said Davis, who added that ISIS “actively searches for people sending reports of any sort out and will kill them.”

According to FoxNews.com, “Following Friday prayers, IS fighters carry out public executions in city squares, including blowing people up with explosives.

“As in other parts of ISIS' sprawling caliphate, women suspected of adultery are beheaded and men believed to be homosexual are thrown from atop buildings.”

A source in the city said, “All they need is for two witnesses to testify and say that this person has done something wrong and they get killed,” adding that the accusation of adultery against a woman results in beheading. “So two bad people can make something up and have a person killed.”

Two weeks ago, 10 boys “no older than 12” were killed for running away from ISIS training camps, one of the sources inside Fallujahh recounted.

“Schools are open for a few hours during the day, although boys and girls are strictly separated and the only courses being taught pertain to weapons use, a hardline interpretation of Islamic doctrine and learning the classical Arabic language which differs from local dialects,” said the Fox News story. “IS requests that families provide at least one or two child fighters – depending on the size of the family – and boys are forced to register for selection at age 14.”

It has been reported that a recent and rare case of civilian retaliation came late last month, according to a source in Fallujahh, when three IS fighters, known by locals as Daesh, were killed by a boy of 13 after they tried to stop him from breeding pigeons.

“They slaughtered 70 birds in front of this boy and flogged the father in front of the family, and when the mother tried to step in the Daesh slapped her – causing major anger for the son,” claimed a witness. The boy is said to have seized one fighter’s AK-47 and gunned down all three of the tormentors.

The boy and his family are now in hiding within their community, the source continued, protected by family and neighbors who despise ISIS, yet hunted by loyalist infiltrators.

Ruth Gledhill, Contributing Editor for Christian Today said in a recent story that Islamic State has burned 15 people to death for attempting to escape the city of Fallujahh in Iraq.

“The terror group has also arrested a woman who went on local television to describe deteriorating conditions, and begged for someone to help save residents,” she said.

Now that the attack has begun, there is finally some hope for the people of this tragic city. We need to pray that their suffering will soon be over.

Photo captions: 1) The battle for Fallujah has begun. 2) A young boy weeps for his city. 3) A body lies unnoticed on a street in Fallujah. 4( A car on fire in Fallujah.5) Dan Wooding reporting for ANS from outside the Kurdistan Parliament in Erbil, Northern Iraq.

About the writer: Dan Wooding, 75, is an award-winning winning author, broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for nearly 53 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren, who all live in the UK. Dan is the founder and international director of the ASSIST News Service (ANS), and the author or co-author of some 45 books. Dan has a radio show and two TV shows, all based in Southern California. Dan has reported from all over the Middle East, and his last trip was to Northern Iraq.

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