Hundreds of civilians flee Iraqi city of Fallujah as US-led coalition’s assault against Islamic State intensifies
Across the border in Syria, the de facto IS capital of Raqqa also under increasing pressure, with Kurdish-Arab alliance fighting to retake the city.
Hundreds of people fled the Fallujah area on Friday as forces pressed simultaneous offensives on the Iraqi city and on another of the Islamic State (IS) group’s key bastions in Syria.
An estimated 50,000 civilians remained trapped in Fallujah city however, as well as twice that number along Syria’s border with Turkey as a result of an IS sweep near Aleppo.
The situation inside Fallujah is getting critical by the day
The US-led coalition claimed it killed a key IS commander for the Fallujah area, although it was not clear when.
“We’ve killed more than 70 enemy fighters, including Maher Al-Bilawi, who is the commander of ISIL [IS] forces in Fallujah,” coalition spokesman Steve Warren said.
Warren said the IS commander was killed two days ago while an Iraqi officer and a local official had reported his death last week.
Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces on May 22-23 launched an offensive to retake Fallujah, one of only two major Iraqi cities still controlled by IS, the other being Mosul.