Baghdad: Iraqi forces shelled Daesh targets in Fallujah on Tuesday, the second day of an assault to retake the militant stronghold just west of Baghdad.
As the government sought to ease international concerns about the risk to civilians, residents in the city, 50km west of the capital, reported sporadic shelling around the city centre, but said it was less intense than on Monday.
“No one can leave. It’s dangerous. There are snipers everywhere along the exit routes,” one resident said by internet.
About 100,000 civilians are estimated to be in Fallujah which, in January 2014, became the first Iraqi city to be captured by Daesh, six months before the group declared its caliphate. The population was three times bigger before the war.
The Iraqi military said it had dislodged the militants from Garma, a village east of the city, overnight. No casualties were reported by the army or the city’s main hospital. On Monday, eight civilians and three militants were killed, and 25 people wounded, 20 of them civilians, according to the hospital.
The US-led coalition “is providing air power to support the Iraqi government forces in Fallujah,” its spokesman, colonel Steve Warren, said by phone.
The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross issued statements on Monday evening appealing for the warring parties to protect civilians, who have limited access to food, water and health care.
Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said the armed forces had been “instructed to preserve the lives of citizens in Fallujah and protect public and private property.”
“Those who cannot take the exit routes, they can stay at home and not move,” he added in comments aired by state Iraqi TV while on visit to the field command centre near Fallujah.
Al Abadi ordered the offensive despite concerns that it could divert resources from a push later this year to retake Mosul, Daesh’s de facto capital in Iraq, and in the face of months of political chaos since his plan to appoint a cabinet of independent ministers — in a bid to fight corruption and patronage — was blocked by parliament.
Shiite politicians stepped up calls on Al Abadi to attack Fallujah after a series of devastating bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere, claimed by Daesh.
Local Sunni tribes and a coalition of mostly Shiite militias are supporting the army in the battle against Daesh, whose forces in the city number between 500 and 700, according to a US military estimate.
The militias, including some backed by Iran, may be restricted to operating outside the city, as they largely were in the battle to retake Ramadi six months ago, to avoid aggravating sectarian tensions with Sunni residents.
