Last bastion: Da’ish defeated as Falluja falls to Iraqi forces

Troops wrest control of neighbourhood where last IS fighters were holed up

FALLUJA: Iraqi forces took the Islamic State’s last positions in Falluja on Sunday, establishing full control over one of the group’s most emblematic bastions after a month-long operation.

Prime Minister Haider al Abadi had already declared victory on June 17 after IS defences collapsed, with Iraqi forces facing only limited resistance in subsequent clearing operations.

The offensive saw tens of thousands of civilians risk death to flee their homes, leaving Iraq to grapple with a humanitarian crisis as its forces prepare to attack the country’s last remaining major IS hub of Mosul.

“This is joy for all Iraqis and it’s the right of all Iraqi people to celebrate the retaking of Falluja,” Abadi said, speaking to Iraqiya state television outside Falluja hospital.



Victory for the security forces in Falluja came when elite forces retook Jolan, a northwestern neighbourhood of the city where the last IS fighters in the city were believed to be holed up.



“It did not take more than two hours for CTS to retake Jolan,” said Sabah al Noman, spokesman for the elite counter-terrorism service that has been leading the fight.

“Da’ish did not fire a single bullet,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. “This proves that Da’ish was defeated even before our forces got there.”

Several other senior military commanders said only small pockets of IS fighters remained in the Falluja area.

After a gruelling month-long campaign, fighters rejoiced at the liberation of what was the first Iraqi city to fall out of government control two and half years ago.

“Today, I am... very happy,” said Mohammed Abed, a major with the joint rapid response force and a Falluja native. “Falluja is very beautiful... It is very unfortunate what happened to Falluja.”

The offensive began on May 22-23 with an initial phase of staging operations aimed at tightening a months-old siege on Falluja and led by the Hashed al-Shaabi, a paramilitary organisation dominated by Tehran-backed Shia militias.



Qassem Suleimani, the powerful head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards’ overseas operations arm, was more visible than ever before in Iraq during the early days of the operation.

The US-led coalition offered some aerial support but was less involved than six months ago during the operations to retake Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in which Falluja is also located.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2016.