Fallujah: Anyone counted number of liberated corpses

[Anthea]

The Iraqi army says it has begun an operation to storm Falluja, a bastion of so-called Islamic State (IS).

It comes a week after the government launched a concerted effort to retake the city, which has been held by the jihadists since 2014.

An estimated 50,000 civilians are trapped inside, with only a few hundred families escaping so far.

Meanwhile ISIS militants launched a wave of bombings in and around the capital, Baghdad, killing at least 20 people.

State forces including members of an elite counter-terrorism unit are moving into Falluja on several fronts, an official statement said.

IS fighters are reportedly putting up resistance with suicide and car bombings.

But while the military said it was advancing towards its goals, so far the fighting seems to be centred on IS defences outside Falluja's city limits, the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says.

Militia leaders taking part have said there is likely to be a pause before the assault on the city centre begins to allow more civilians to escape.

There is alarm over conditions faced by civilians, with reports of people starving to death and of being killed for refusing to fight for IS.

The Iraqi military has urged those remaining to either leave the city or stay indoors, though IS is preventing civilians from fleeing.

Falluja fell to IS in January 2014, a key moment in its rise that saw it declare a caliphate across swathes of Iraq and Syria.

Along with Mosul, it is one of two major cities held by IS in Iraq.

Meanwhile three districts of Baghdad have been targeted in attacks.

In the worst attack, a car bomb detonated at an army checkpoint in the mainly Shia area of Shaab, killing at least 11 people
Another suicide attacker targeted Sadr City, a Shia area of Baghdad, killing at least two people
A suicide bomber struck a market in Tarmiya, a town 50km (30 miles) north of Baghdad, killing at least seven

All three bombings have been claimed by IS in an online statement.

The group frequently targets Shia Muslims, whom the extremist Sunni militant group regards as apostates.

The attacks may also be an attempt to deflect attention from the operation in Falluja.

Falluja - key facts:

had population of more than 300,000 before it was seized by first al-Qaeda and then by IS in 2014
has always been a hotbed of Sunni defiance, becoming a symbol of resistance to US forces in violent battles in 2004
controls main highway from Baghdad to both Jordan and Syria
is known as the "city of mosques" - more than 200 mosques in city and surrounding area

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-36410982

[Anthea]

Do the inhabitants of Falluja really want to be liberated corpses?

An estimated 50,000 civilians are trapped inside, with only a few hundred families escaping so far.

I do NOT think that the coalition should bomb Falluja

In fact for the time being I believe that Falluja should be left ALONE

When jihadists first headed to Falluja they should have been prevented from reaching the city

Actually this seems to be a theme in the war; Allow the jihadists to enter a city, then coalition blows the cities up turning them into uninhabitable rubble, killing unrecorded numbers of innocent people

To many of the Sunnis living there, ISIS would have been welcomed as protectors from the sadistic Shia regime - and rightly so - though the barbaric treatment of the Shia army is seldom mentioned

ISIS has been in Falluja for 2 years

2 years in which they have establish some form of order and workable infrastructure

2 years in which to plant bombs and booby-traps

2 years in which to plan their defence

How many innocent people and their pets will be needlessly destroyed???

[Anthea]

Iraqi troops seize control of districts of Falluja from Isis

Long-awaited assault backed by US-led coalition forces comes with fears militants might use civilians as human shields

Iraqi troops have wrested back control of districts in the Islamic State-held city of Falluja in a long-awaited operation fraught with fears that the militant group could try to use tens of thousands of civilians as human shields.

The assault came on Monday after a week of preparations focused on encircling the city, which fell to Isis early in 2014, months before the jihadis announced the creation of a caliphate.

Backed by US-led coalition airstrikes, Iraqi commanders said elite counterterrorism forces had begun a multi-pronged assault aimed at reaching the city centre, and appeared to have taken three out of nine districts in the militant redoubt west of Baghdad.

AFP reported that Lt Gen Abdelwahab al-Saadi, the commander of the operation, said: “Iraqi forces entered Falluja under air cover from the international coalition, the Iraqi air force and army aviation, and supported by artillery and tanks.”

Explosions and gunfire could be heard in the southern Naimiya district as Iraqi forces advanced. State television reported that an elite military unit seized the district’s police station at midday local time.

Isis responded to the offensive by dispatching suicide bombers in and around Baghdad. Three attacks targeted the populous Sadr City suburb and the Shaab neighbourhood, as well as the area of Tarmiya north of the capital, killing more than 20 people in the largely Shia districts. Isis claimed responsibility for the attacks in statements circulated online.

The assault on Falluja comes amid a concerted campaign against Isis in Iraq and Syria that has stretched the militants across multiple fronts. It is likely to last at least a few days with stiff resistance from the militants, who have long been entrenched there. Falluja was the first major city to be seized by Isis, taken long before the militants surged into northern Iraq and conquered the Nineveh plains and Iraq’s second city, Mosul.

Although it has less strategic value than the populous city of Mosul, the Sunni city carries great symbolic weight for the Iraqi government and ISIS. “It is important because of its symbolic value to Daesh,” said Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi government adviser, using the group’s Arabic acronym. “It is close to Baghdad and close to sovereign infrastructure in west Baghdad, namely the international airport, and it is the first place Daesh occupied in Anbar in 2014.”

Falluja was a key hotbed in the insurgency that raged in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and saw two separate large-scale offensives by the US military in 2004 that destroyed much of the city.

Islamic State is up against a struggle to retain two key strongholds. But a major push by its forces in Syria shows defeat is a long way off

This time, an estimated 50,000 civilians remain trapped and besieged, facing starvation. At the weekend, a local police chief told the media that Isis had been using residents of villages on the outskirts of the city as human shields, raising fears that the militant group could do the same again to slow the Iraqi military’s offensive.

The UN high commissioner for refugees said 800 civilians had so far fled Falluja, often travelling on foot and escaping through disused irrigation pipes. Those in the city have had little access to food and clean water since roads into the jihadi stronghold were cut off in December last year.

Several people, including women and children, died trying to escape, the UNHCR said. It added that there had been reports of a big increase in the number of executions of men and older boys in Falluja refusing to fight for ISIS. Other reports said a number of people attempting to depart had been executed or whipped, and one man’s leg was reportedly amputated. The Guardian has not been able to verify the reports independently.

Some fear retribution by auxiliary Shia militias taking part in the campaign, some members of whom are suspicious that the civilians who have remained in the city are sympathetic to Isis. In a video published over the weekend, the leader of the Abu Fadl al-Abbas militia called for the cleansing of the “tumour of Fallujah”, saying there were no patriots in the city.
Civilians who fled their homes gather on the outskirts of Falluja last week

Iraq’s top Shia spiritual authority, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, urged restraint in Friday prayers last week, calling on soldiers fighting to liberate Falluja to make saving civilians a priority over targeting the enemy.

ISIS supporters on secure media channels said the offensive to liberate Falluja – backed by the US and Iran – proved that they were in league against oppressed Sunni Muslims.

“America’s alliance with Iran is now explicit and evident for all the people,” said one ISIS supporter on Telegram, a secure messaging app. “[America] is defending... Qassem Soleimani with its air force.” Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, had reportedly been assisting Shia militia forces on the ground during the offensive.

ISIS has seen its state contract over the past few months, losing the city of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, late last year, as well as the Yazidi homeland of Sinjar, though both were essentially levelled in the campaign.

Anthea: turning homes into liberated piles of rubble with no doubt turning many of the inhabitants into liberated corpses

Am I the only person who has noticed that when it comes to killing people and destroying homes and business, the coalition never stops to count the financial cost

However, when it comes to the cost of rebuilding what they have destroyed - none of the coalition appear to be willing to help rebuild

The stakes are high, but a power struggle between the Iraqi army and the Kurdish Peshmerga is hampering the battle against Islamic State

The terror group also lost the strategic town of Shadadi near the Syrian-Iraqi border and historic Palmyra in the deserts of central Syria to a joint Russian-Syrian army offensive this year.

Kurdish paramilitaries and Arab fighters backed by US special forces on the ground are expanding their offensive in northern Syria, drawing closer to the militants’ capital of Raqqa, while in Iraq, Kurdish troops launched a campaign on Sunday to liberate a series of villages on the road east of Mosul leading to Erbil.

The ongoing ebb of Isis fortunes prompted a rare admission of the difficulties the group is facing by its spokesman, Abu Mohammad al-Adnani. Last week he acknowledged the group’s loss of territory but pledged it would ultimately be victorious, saying it had not been defeated when it lost territory or leaders in the past.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/m ... amic-state

[Anthea]

Iraqi forces enter Fallujah and seize control of districts from ISIS

Iraqi government forces started arriving into the city of Fallujah early on Monday, but Isis showed that it can still hit back and by recapturing a small city further north on the Euphrates. Isis suicide bombers killed at least 24 people in a series of attacks in and around Baghdad.

Iraqi counter-terrorism troops, the most experienced soldiers in the Iraqi security forces, began moving into Fallujah from the south in the face of sniper and mortar fire.

“They took one neighbourhood called Nuyamah and are at the entrance to another called Shuhada that is five miles from the centre of Fallujah,” said a source in contact with people in the city.

The Iraqi government and the US are eager for regular military forces to be seen to be winning a victory at Fallujah, and not the Shia paramilitary movements that are allegedly under Iranian influence. But, for all the publicity given to clashes, there has so far been no heavy street fighting and casualties are still low.

In response to the assault on Fallujah, Isis lunched a surprise attack on the small city of Hit on Monday and were reported to have recaptured it.

As frequently happens in the war in Iraq, the number of combatants was small, with 25 Isis fighters crossing the Euphrates, which runs through the centre of Hit, from districts they already held, to oust government forces on the other side with the assistance of sympathisers who had stayed behind when Isis lost the city earlier this year. Only one person was reported dead and three injured.

ISIS suicide bombings directed against soft targets are proving more effective against police and civilians than they are against regular soldiers. In one attack a suicide bomber rammed a car filled with explosives into a checkpoint in the Shia Shaab district of Baghdad killing eight civilians and three soldiers.

A second suicide car bomber blew himself up in a market in the town of Tarmiyah, 31 miles north of Baghdad, killing seven civilians and three policemen. The third attack was in Sadr City when a bomber on a motorcycle detonated explosives killing three people.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 57076.html

[Anthea]

casualties are still low

By casualties I assume they are referring to innocent people SLAUGHTERED by the army of liberation

Exactly how many innocent inhabitants have been turned into

LIBERATED CORPSES

[Anthea]

ISIS in Fallujah: 'Human catastrophe' unfolding in city as civilians used as human shields for Iraqi assault

There have been reports of starvation inside the city, where Isis is killing civilians attempting to escape

A “human catastrophe” is looming in Fallujah as up to 50,000 civilians remain trapped in the Isis-held Iraqi city during a continuing government assault.

Families who have managed to escape said fighters from the so-called Islamic State had sealed exit points and shot anyone attempting to flee since the start of Operation Breaking Terrorism last week.

As well as using the trapped civilians as human shields against approaching Iraqi forces, Shia militias and coalition air strikes, there were reports of militants forcing families to move with Isis forces from one location to another.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who was the UK Special Envoy for Iraq from 2003 to 2004, told Radio 4’s Today programme that “renegades” from Saddam Hussein’s Ba'ath Party and Sunni tribes were also present in Fallujah and would resist the government’s offensive.

Iraqi army advances in Fallujah while ISIL launches suicide attacks

“It’s bound to be a very destructive campaign,” he said. “There’s no way of re-taking Fallujah by the Iraqi security forces without serious harm to the civilian population.”

Iraqi counter-terror forces started moving into the city in the early hours of Monday morning, mortar fire and with air support from the US-led coalition.

There have been no confirmed casualty figures, with both sides claiming to have killed dozens of enemy fighters but no official mention of civilian deaths.

Isis media channels have been sharing footage of destruction in residential areas, claiming to show children among those injured by US air strikes, while Iraqi television has shown images of families being evacuated by troops.

Displaced Iraqi children at a camp for displaced civlians in Amriyat al-Fallujah on 29 May (AFP/Getty Images)

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), which is working in displacement camps at Amiryiat Al Fallujah, has warned that there are few safe routes for evacuations as the city is attacked from three directions.

“A human catastrophe is unfolding in Fallujah. Families are caught in the crossfire with no safe way out,” said general secretary Jan Egeland.

“Warring parties must guarantee civilians safe exit now, before it’s too late and more lives are lost.”

Suad, who fled from a village on the outskirts of the city with her husband and her six children, told the NRC Isis militants had used them in battles.

“When the attack on Fallujah started, Isis forced us to leave our homes and kept moving us from one damaged, deserted house to another,” she said.

“All the time we were exposed to the exchange of fire. On our last day the fighting became too fierce - they were shooting above our heads.”

Families have trekked for hours under the cover of darkness, moving through fields and hiding in disused irrigation pipes, but women and children are among many believed to have been killed or flogged for attempting to escape.

A member of the Iraqi security forces fires artillery during clashes with Isis militants near Fallujah, Iraq, 29 May, 2016 (Reuters)

Conditions for those left inside Fallujah were described as “dire”, with a severe lack of food, clean drinking water and medicine, while relief supplies in Amiryiat Al Fallujah are also limited despite efforts by the United Nations, Muslim Aid and other organisations.

Caroline Gluck, from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said several hundred families made their way out of Fallujah on Monday, while almost 3,200 people had already reached government displacement camps.

But it was a fraction of up to 50,000 civilians feared to remain trapped, with routes out of the city barred for civilians since December.

She said that stories of extreme desperation were emerging, with rocketing food prices of more than $40 for a kilo of flour forcing people to search rubbish and eat rotten food.

“Since December, food has been in short supply, people are relying on expired rice and dried dates, and several starvation-related deaths have been reported,” UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming said.

“The number of families who’ve escaped is still very small, given the tens of thousands of people still trapped in Fallujah.”

Save the Children said the price of a single can of infant milk had hit £35 at times during the siege and that potatoes and sugar cost between ten to fifteen times more than normal, forcing families to eat soup made from grass or a handful of seeds.

Some residents have reportedly killed themselves, while parents are said to have drowned their children in the river or abandoned them because they could not feed them.

The UNHCR has also received reports of a dramatic increase in of executions of men and boys for refusing to fight for Isis and “many” people dying in air strikes or buried alive under the rubble of their homes.

Fallujah, lying around 40 miles west of Baghdad, was the first Iraqi city to be taken by Isis in its January 2014 offensive and is the group’s largest stronghold in Iraq after Mosul.

The Sunni majority city has long been a centre of resistance against the Shia government and was bombed by Coalition forces during the Gulf War and invaded by American troops in 2003, becoming a focus for the ensuing resistance and insurgency.

A man walks in the rubble of damaged house in Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad (AP)

Battles continued on Tuesday morning as Iraqi forces repelled a four-hour attack by Isis in the southern Nuaimiya district.

Hundreds of militants have prepared for the assault with a warren of underground tunnels and are using snipers, vehicle bombs, IEDs and booby traps, while the group launches a string of suicide bombings aiming to sow discord and lower morality in Baghdad.

The Ministry of Defence says the RAF is assisting the Fallujah offensive with air strikes, hitting weapons stockpiles, tunnels and a mortar team last week.

The most recent air strikes documented by the US-led coalition included strikes on Isis tactical units, fighting positions, vehicles and bridges on Sunday.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is urging the Iraqi and government and its partners to make the protection of civilians “paramount” in operations to retake Fallujah.

A statement said: “We call on all parties to the conflict to adhere strictly to international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution in the conduct of hostilities, and to ensure that civilians are permitted to leave areas where fighting may be taking place in dignity and safety, and that they can access humanitarian assistance.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 57316.html

[Anthea]

Iraqis 'liberated' from ISIS: Why suffering may not be over

As the Iraqi army backed by the U.S.-led international coalition embarks on an offensive to liberate Falluja from ISIS, reports are starting to come out about the campaign's military successes. The leader of ISIS in Falluja has been reportedly killed by coalition airstrikes, while the town of Karma, north of Falluja city, has been cleared not just from ISIS fighters but also from its residents.
But "victory" against ISIS in Iraq is not a simple case of eradicating the organization militarily. Examining the social and political dimensions of the anti-ISIS offensive reveals that "victory" is likely to be short-termed as long as the drivers that led to the emergence of ISIS in Iraq in the first place continue to be reproduced.

Iraqi forces begin operation to liberate Falluja

A key driver behind the embrace of ISIS in Iraq is the sense of grievance held by the Sunni community against the Shia-dominated government, which many Sunnis view as pro-Iranian and as having discriminated against them whether under the leadership of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, or current Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

The government's blessing of the involvement of Shia militias in the fight against ISIS has further confirmed its bias in the eyes of Sunnis. Although Sunni militias are reported to have taken part in the Falluja offensive, their role has been overshadowed by that of Iranian-backed Shia militias who are documented to have previously engaged in attacks against Sunni civilians.

For those Sunnis in Falluja who back ISIS, the involvement of Shia militias will drive them even closer to ISIS. While for those residents of Falluja who do not support ISIS, being liberated from it at the hands of Shia militias is a case of removing one tyrant to be replaced by another.

High cost of liberation

The cost of this liberation is high not only politically but also materially and socially. Judging by the method used to liberate Karma, the military offensive in Falluja appears to follow a similar pattern to that previously used to liberate Kobani in northern Syria from ISIS. This method is based on heavy aerial bombing clearing the way for ground forces to advance into new territories.

But the collateral damage in those two cases has been immense, with both towns seeing large scale damage to their infrastructures. Applying this method to liberate the whole of Falluja means a level of destruction that will require years of reconstruction to restore the city to its former self. Not only will this mean a loss of livelihood for the residents of Falluja, the displacement of civilians will also have a significant demographic impact on Iraq.

Thousands of Sunni civilians have already either fled or are about to flee Falluja in the wake of the anti-ISIS offensive. A key question is where will those internally displaced people go? It is likely that they will find themselves in Shia-dominated areas, where because of the existing tension regarding the role of Shia militias, sectarian clashes become a possible scenario.

So while ISIS might be eventually weakened in Iraq militarily, thousands of Sunnis are finding themselves losing their livelihoods, being internally displaced, at the mercy of militias loyal to Iran, and with a government that they regard as a continuation of its predecessor. Back in 2013, many Iraqi Sunnis had pledged allegiance to ISIS because they sought revenge against a government that they saw as being pro-Iranian and as posing a threat to their livelihoods.

Fertile ground for terror groups

As things stand, the near future in Iraq appears to replicate the conditions of the not-so-distant past. As long as those social and political drivers continue to exist, terrorist organizations will find in Iraq fertile ground for recruitment.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi tried but failed to win the trust of Iraq's Sunnis who continue to see him as another version of Maliki. And while involving Sunni militias in the fight against ISIS has been a way for the Iraqi army to show that its campaign is backed by Iraqis from all backgrounds, the fact remains that the Falluja offensive is not one in which Shia and Sunni Iraqis are fighting hand in hand.

If anything, the involvement of militias sheds light on the weakness of the Iraqi army as a national institution.

Sunni versus Shia explained

The glaring gap in the campaign against ISIS is a national agenda for Iraq. Iran's patronage of Shia militias as well as of the Iraqi government and the persisting sense of Sunni grievances against the Iraqi state do not bear good news for Iraq's prospects of stability.

As long as there is no strategy to address Iraq's social and political problems alongside a strategy to restore the Iraqi army's credibility, the rush to celebrate military "victory" against ISIS will be overcome by the emergence of other ISIS-like forces in the country in the long term.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/30/opini ... index.html

[Anthea]

Update: Civilians continue to flee Falluja

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson William Spindler – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 31 May 2016, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Around 3,700 people (624 families) have fled Falluja over the past week, since the new offensive by Iraqi forces to retake the city began, according to figures provided by authorities. Many of these people (about 1,300) are staying in the al-Iraq camp in the Ameriyat al –Falluja district, where UNHCR is working. Others are scattered in one of several other government-run camps in the district or staying with relatives. Iraqi forces are helping to transport families escaping the city, and have set up a hotline (195) to provide information to people wanting to leave.

UNHCR understands another 500 men and boys over 12-years-old are held for security screening which can take five to seven days. People are being released after this process, and we understand some 27 men were released yesterday (Monday 30 May)

UNHCR has received reports of casualties among civilians in the Falluja city centre due to heavy shelling, including seven members of one family on 28 May. There are also reports of several hundred families being used as human shields by ISIL, in the centre of Falluja.

http://www.unhcr.org/news/briefing/2016 ... lluja.html

[Anthea]

Around 3,700 people (624 families) have fled Falluja over the past week

That leave about 46,300 innocent people inside Falluja

46,300 prospective liberated corpses

[Anthea]

Falluja is a Sunni city

A city where Sunnis felt reasonably safe from the barbaric Shia government attacks

A city whose inhabitants welcomed ISIS as protectors from the barbaric Shia

Those Sunni who survive the liberation of THEIR city will not have a home or business to return to, if the liberation takes it's normal format of destroying everything in sight, which it most probably will

What will happen to the penniless, jobless homeless?

They will be at the mercy of the barbaric Shia once again

HAS ANYONE ASKED THE SUNNI OF FALLUJAH IF THEY WANT TO BE LIBERATED

and left at the mercy of the barbaric Shia again???

Has the world forgotten about all the attacks on innocent Sunnis wives, because I have NOT

The world should have stepped in to protect the Sunni against the Shia

Remember the civilians running away from Fallujah, are running away from the liberators NOT from ISIS