ISIS Counter-Offense Tunnels, Snipers Defense of Fallujah

14 June 2016

"Tens of ISIL terrorists have made contact with Iraqi officials that they want to lay down arms and surrender to Iraqi forces in Fallujah after the army besieged the city, Al-Alam News Network reports. "Over 150 ISIL militants have declared that if the Iraqi troops enter the city they will surrender without any resistance," al-Soumeriya news website quoted Iraqi Federal Police Commander Ra'ed Judat as saying on Friday.

On Wednesday, 35 members of the ISIL terrorist group surrendered to the Iraqi forces in the Western parts of Ramadi, Anbar province.

Commander of the third battalion of the Iraqi popular forces Mahmoud Marzi was quoted as saying by Soumeriya news that all the terrorists are from al-Karamah town who joined the ISIL in 2014.

On Tuesday, the Iraqi army, backed by volunteer forces, launched an operation to liberate the strategic city of Fallujah from the control of the ISIL terrorists.
Iraqi officials said the offensive to retake the troubled city, located roughly 69 kilometers (43 miles) West of the capital, Baghdad, began on Monday night, and that government troopers together with volunteer fighters have now reached the gates of Fallujah.

The authorities said that Iraqi forces are now in full control of the Western, Southern and Eastern areas leading to the city."

ISIL Terrorists Surrender Themselves to Iraqi Forces in Fallujah











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June 13, 2016

"The commander of the 2nd regiment in al-Somoud brigade, Colonel Orans Mohamed al-Eissawi, said in a press statement obtained by IraqiNews.com that “The joint security forces stormed into al-Halabesa area (10 km west of Fallujah),” indicating that, “Dozens of ISIS members were killed during the operation.”

Eissawi added, “The military operation that targeted ISIS strongholds and gatherings surprised the enemy who started to flee to central Fallujah.”

Joint security forces clear ISIS from al-Halabesa area - Iraqi News


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"Iraqi security forces raised the national flag in Fallujah on Friday, claiming control over the center of the city that was the first to fall to Islamic State when it blitzed across the country two years ago.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi celebrated the advance on national television but stopped short of declaring complete victory in the nearly month-old offensive against one of the Sunni extremist group’s two remaining strongholds in Iraq—and the closest to Baghdad...



"campaign against Islamic State.

On Friday, Iraqi security forces surged into the city center and captured the main government building, raising the Iraqi flag. Militants abandoned their positions and many attempted to blend in with fleeing civilians, the mayor of the city and commanders said. Some 1,000 alleged Islamic State fighters were identified and arrested, they said.

Lt. Gen. Abdul Wahab Al Saadi, commander of the Fallujah operation for Iraq’s counterterrorism forces, estimated between 150 and 200 Islamic State militants remained in the city.

Col. Garver said the Iraqi forces were following the same strategy used last year in the liberation of Ramadi: punching through and then sweeping out to the perimeter."


Iraq Says Military Has Retaken Central Fallujah From Islamic State - WSJ


Mayor is still Taha Bidaywi Hamed, I believe. Might be a tough job to be Mayor of Fallujah, Iraq.






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Good for the Iraqi army. I hope they can hold it now.

Thoreau72 said:

Good for the Iraqi army. I hope they can hold it now.

Click to expand...

Heard a Pentagon briefing on the radio, Tuesday, 6/21/16, that 1/3 of Fallujah is under control of the Iraqi Army, and they are making deliberately slow progress, taking about 5% of the remaining territory per day, US Air strikes are still about 4 per day. Trying to preserve buildings, and civilians.

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"The crash of a rocket fired towards Fallujah from a nearby sector controlled by the Iranian-backed Badr organisation punctuates the roar of fighter jets. Two years into the campaign against IS, Iraqi security forces, their Iranian-backed Shia militia allies and the American-led international coalition seem to have settled into an uneasy coexistence. The Shia militias that make up the bulk of Iraq’s “popular mobilisation forces” have been relegated to a supporting role in the fight for Sunni Fallujah, which makes political sense. “Sometimes they come after we’ve cleared the neighbourhoods and they write their own graffiti on the walls to take credit for it,” says one young special-forces fighter, already a veteran of three big battles.

Fallujah appears to have been damaged far less than Ramadi, the provincial capital, was during a much longer battle earlier this year. In neighbourhoods cleared by special forces and now being handed over to an emergency local police force, most buildings are intact. But it will be at least six months before civilians are allowed to return homePockets of IS fighters remain. Neighbourhoods will have to be swept house by house for weapons and explosives. Reconnecting electricity and water will take time."


Down, but not yet out | The Economist


How is aid being directed toward displaced civilians? How are ISIS bank accounts being attacked?







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Iraqi aircraft joined the U.S.-led coalition in airstrikes targeting Islamic State convoys, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad told Fox News Thursday, after a U.S. official said at least 250 militants were killed.

The strikes unfolded Tuesday night into Wednesday, Col. Christopher Garver said.

The first convoy was spotted southwest of Fallujah in an area with known ISIS influence, according to Garver. Iraqi Security Forces fought the militants on the ground, he said, before coalition strikes destroyed some 55 vehicles.

The official said a second convoy formed east of Ramadi later Wednesday before coalition and Iraqi jets launched more strikes. He said that air assault destroyed nearly 120 ISIS vehicles, but in both attacks, Iraqi Security Forces destroyed more."

US, Iraqi strikes kill at least 250 ISIS fighters in Iraq convoys | Fox News



"The first ISIS convoy hit was outside Fallujah. A spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition tells Alice that surveillance and intelligence reports indicated that a group of fighters was gathering southwest of the city. Then, as Col. Chris Garver explains, "When we could positively identify this as a convoy of Da'esh fighters, Iraqi Air Force and Coalition airstrikes attacked the convoy throughout the night and into Wednesday morning."


VIDEO: Airstrikes Hit ISIS Convoy Fleeing Fallujah : The Two-Way : NPR


"Defeating the Islamic State is a worthy goal, but what happens then? An Iran-dominated Iraq will serve as a breeding ground for Sunni jihad and help ignite a regional Sunni-Shiite sectarian war. Just as defeating al Qaeda in Iraq or killing Osama bin Laden only made the threat shift forms, the defeat of the Islamic State could only lead to a new jihadi group taking its place. After all, modern jihad started with a half-dozen or so veterans of the Afghan war sitting around a table in Peshawar, Pakistan, in 1988 and has grown into a worldwide movement.

The United States needs to recognize that the jihadi problem is not going away. Defeating it will require a sustained commitment by an international coalition — specifically one that includes Muslim nations — to stop the cancer from growing. This is what happened on the micro-level in Ramadi in 2006 and 2007. Establishing a similar project across Iraq will take years — just as stabilizing Germany, Japan, Italy, and South Korea in the 20th century took decades."


Iraq’s Flawed Liberation of Fallujah | Foreign Policy


https://www.google.com/?#q=fallujah

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MOSUL: Will ISIL negotiate to reduce bombings in Baghdad, if the Iraq Army refrains from invading Mosul?

One bomb attack in Baghdad/Fallujah, by ISIL, one section advance into Mosul, by the Iraq Army, then hold, wait for another bombing by ISIL.


"As the campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) gains momentum in Iraq, the focus has returned to Mosul, a key ISIL stronghold. Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi has affirmed that security preparations are being made, to include training thousands of different paramilitary fighters as part of the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF). The United States has offered to increase its battlefield support to the ISF — at Baghdad’s request — to include deploying Apache attack helicopters and advisors, in addition to training and equipping Iraqi troops at the division level and coalition airstrikes.

Still, half of the battle for Mosul will be a political one that takes place before the fighting commences. Key local and regional stakeholders continue to disagree over who should take the lead and be involved in the Mosul offensive. Liberating Mosul is also tied to determining “who gets what” in a post-ISIL settlement; the nature of boundaries, resources, security, and local governance. A successful U.S. military strategy cannot resolve these issues; however, it should account for the underlying political nature of the campaign and the necessary Iraqi deal-making that will drive the timeline, participants, and its potential outcome."


The Long Road to Mosul


Can you train a tiger with a sea anchor, and a whistle?



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They are digging a 5 foot deep security ditch around Fallujah.


https://www.google.com/?#q=fallujah+trench



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