Can the Iraqis hold Fallujah this time?
Via The Daily Mail:
Iraqi forces entered Fallujah today in a final assault to retake the city where 50,000 civilians are being held hostage by ISIS.
Troops backed by coalition air strikes, artillery and tanks stormed the terror group’s bastion on three fronts in a massive dawn offensive.
They were joined by counter-terrorism service (CTS) forces, marking the start of a phase of urban combat in a city where US forces in 2004 fought some of their toughest battles since the Vietnam War.
Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi, the commander in charge of the operation, said: ‘Iraqi forces entered Fallujah under air cover from the international coalition, the Iraqi air force and army aviation and supported by artillery and tanks.
‘Counter-terrorism service (CTS) forces, the Anbar police and the Iraqi army, at around 4am (1am GMT), started moving into Fallujah from three directions,’ he said.
‘There is resistance from Daesh,’ he added, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS.
CTS spokesman Sabah al-Norman said: ‘We started early this morning our operations to break into Fallujah.’
The week-old operation had previously focused on retaking villages and rural areas around Fallujah, which lies just 30 miles west of Baghdad.
Only a few hundred families managed to slip out of the Fallujah area ahead of the assault on the city, with an estimated 50,000 civilians still trapped inside, sparking fears the jihadists could try to use them as human shields.