Iraqi Forces are Closing the Net Around ISIS in Fallujah

nsnbc : Iraqi security forces, on Saturday, further closed the net that is closing around the self-proclaimed Islamic State in the city of Fallujah in the western part of Al-Anbar province.

Fallujah_Iraq_May 2016Iraqi military forces, together with Shi’ite as well as Sunni paramilitary unites known as Hashd Shaabi, made a significant progress in north of Fallujah, some 50 kilometers north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

After heavy fighting, ground forces backed by the Iraqi Air Force reportedly established control over the villages of Zagharit, al-Bakara and al-Mukhtar.

Security forces also reestablished control of Albu Shejil area in west of Fallujah, after fierce clashes with IS militants, leaving at least 20 IS militants killed and five IS vehicles destroyed, the source said. The number of eventual casualties among Iraqi coalition troops has not been reported.

Outside Saqlawiyah, a federal police force clashed with IS militants. One of ISIS’s armored vehicles and a booby-trapped one were destroyed and at least three ISIS snipers were killed.

The campaign to wrest Fallujah from ISIS was announced by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Monday. Al-Abadi’s administration has come under significant domestic political pressure after protesters around the Shi’ite cleric Al-Sadr repeatedly stormed Baghdad’s highly secured governmental district a.k.a the “Green Zone”.

Iraq_Military Comvoy_Al-Anbar_May 2016 (archives)An apparently confident Al-Abadi went on television to announce the campaign, saying “Fallujah will return to Iraqis similar to hundreds of villages and towns which were returned to its people and were liberated from Islamic State’s oppression and treachery”.

It is worth noting that the self-proclaimed Islamic State has a large number of military officers who were put out of work when the United States and the U.S.-led “Coalition of the Willing” de-Baathified Iraq after it overturned the Iraqi government and Saddam Hussein in an illegal war of aggression without a UN mandate.

Many analysts agree that the overthrow of the secular Arab Socialist Baath Party government in Iraq is one of the root causes for the rise of secular extremism and ethnic divisions.

ISIS routes to Syria via Al-Anbar since 2012. Map Plottings: Red, Agha H. Amin. Blue, Christof Lehmann.

ISIS routes to Syria via Al-Anbar since 2012. Map Plottings: Red, Agha H. Amin. Blue, Christof Lehmann.

The ongoing campaign was launched on early on Monday, after Iraqi Air Forces and AirForces of the U.S.-led coalition had launched a series of strategic air strikes against ISIS targets, including  command centers in Fallujah and Al-Anbar province. After the initial air strikes, ground troops began to advance towards the edges of Fallujah as well as the nearby towns of Garma and Saqlawiah.

Heavy clashes as well as severe casualties may have to be expected when the fighting enters the next stage; That is, house to house and close quarter combat in Fallujah. Another highly sensitive operation that poses a major challenge is the recapturing  of the Fallujah Dam from ISIS.

The Fallujah Dam is of greatest strategic importance. Holding the dam enables ISIS to either close down the water supply for millions of people, or to demolish the dam and cause a flood wave. Wresting the dam from the insurgents is, in other words, a highly sensitive operation.

Al-Anbar province is also of strategic significance of the war in Syria. While ISIS does receive weapons and logistic support via Turkey, Lebanon and in part Jordan and Israel, Al-Anbar province is a direct and well established route for Saudi Arabia’s support for ISIS and other insurgencies in Iraq and Syria. Syrian forces are currently engaged in a campaign against ISIS in Deir Ez-Zor.

CH/L – nsnbc 20.05.2016

Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/05/29/iraqi-forces-are-closing-the-net-around-isis-in-fallujah/

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