Major General Ismail al-Mahlawi, the commander of Anbar Operation, announced that the Iraqi forces have reached a railway bridge west of Fallujah after liberating al-Sabihat and al-Falahat districts on the suburbs of the city from Daesh terrorists, Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel reported.
He emphasized that the massive operation to liberate Fallujah is underway with the cooperation of Iraqi air force and international coalition jet fighters.
The commander went on to say that volunteer and tribal forces have helped the Iraqi troops in liberating Falahat and Sabihat.
Speaking to the Tasnim News Agency, the spokesman for the Iraqi voluntary forces said earlier this week that they are ready to take action inside Fallujah if the army’s operation to cleanse the beleaguered city of Daesh terrorists takes too long and the clashes turn into a war of attrition.
Abu Jaafar al-Assadi underlined that the voluntary forces, known as the Popular Mobilization Units or Hashid al-Shaabi, will enter Fallujah whenever the Baghdad government asks for help or the military forces need a hand in recapturing the city from terrorists.
There are fears that a lingering operation to liberate the city would result in a war of attrition, Assadi said, adding that Hashid al-Shaabi will take action to avert a drawn-out war.
According to the spokesman, one of the main obstacles to cleansing Fallujah of terrorists is the huge number of civilians in the city.
Led by the elite counter-terrorism service (CTS), Iraq’s best trained and most seasoned fighting unit, the Iraqi army entered Fallujah on May 30 in a major offensive that began a week earlier.
In January 2014, Fallujah, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, became the first Iraqi city to fall under the control of the terrorists, six months before they declared a caliphate over territory seized in Iraq and Syria.