Iraq government forces held back a four-hour attack by the Islamic State on the city of Fallujah on Tuesday.
This development came one day after Iraqi military forces entered the city. A U.S.-led coalition against the extremists helped Iraqi forces enter the city with airstrikes. Forces entered the “second phase” in the fight to recapture the city from the Islamic State. 50,000 people are still trapped. They are afraid the Islamic State may try to use them as human shields.
“Iraqi forces entered Fallujah under air cover from the international coalition, the Iraqi air force and army aviation, and supported by artillery and tanks,” Lieutenant-General Abdelwahab al-Saadi, the operation commander, said. He also said that IS fighters carried out a counter-attack on the area early on Tuesday.
Fallujah is located northwest of the capital Baghdad and is one of the last major Islamic State strongholds. It was lost from government control in 2014. As Iraqi forces increase their efforts to attempt to liberate Fallujah, Daesh, an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State, grows angry and frustrated with the people in the city, increasing the mistreatment of the city’s residents. A 40-year-old woman told the Norwegian Refugee Council that there is no medicine for ordinary people and that instead of giving people adequate treatment, doctors will just amputate a patient’s arms or legs.
Iraqi forces said US-led coalition and Iraqi air support was necessary in repelling the attack and said that ground forces resumed their advance.
