Iraqi Forces Arrests Over 500 Deash Suspects Fleeing Fallujah with Civilians
Iraqi forces have arrested more than 500 suspected members of the DeashTakfiri terrorist group among civilians fleeing the city of Fallujah.
“We have arrested 546 suspected terrorists who had fled by taking advantage of the movements of displaced families over the past two weeks,” Hadi Rzayej, police chief of Iraq’s western conflict-ridden province of Anbar in which Fallujah is located, said on Monday.
“Many of them were using fake IDs,” he noted, adding that separate screening is conducted among civilian boys and adults fleeing the area. Iraqi government forces release some after a few hours while others are to undergo more thorough interrogation.
Iraqi forces have been engaged in a major offensive to liberate Fallujah, located some 70 kilometers west of the capital, Baghdad.
The Iraqi army on Saturday opened a safe exit route for an estimated 50,000 civilians trapped in the center of the Deash-held city.
Residents of Fallujah have been taking huge risks to flee the city by walking along mined roads and trying to cross the Euphrates river at any cost.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi recently announced that the offensive to liberate Fallujah has been slowed down due to fears for the safety of civilians being used as human shield. He also said that safe corridors have been established to allow some civilians to exit.
The northern and western parts of Iraq have been plagued with gruesome violence ever since Daesh terrorists mounted an offensive in the country in June 2014.
The Iraqi army, backed by volunteer forces, has been engaged in extensive battles and made gains in pushing the militants out of the country’s cities and villages.
Daesh executes 19 of own members in Iraq’s Fallujah
Meanwhile, The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group has killed 19 members of its own for allegedly escaping the battlefields where they were supposed to face off with Iraqi security forces in the city of Fallujah.
Daesh executed the 19 individuals for fleeing the battlefields in the neighborhoods of al-Shuhada and al-Nasaf, an informed source told Iraq’s al-Sumaria news website on Sunday.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, further said that the terrorists were shot in the head in a square in the center of Fallujah.
On May 22, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the liberation operations for the Daesh-held Fallujah. Nearly 70 kilometers west of the capital Baghdad, the strategic city has been under the Takfiris’ control since 2014.
Iraqi forces advance in Nineveh
Meanwhile, an Iraqi security source said military forces and allied volunteer forces from the Hashd al-Shaabi have managed to retake the village of Haj Ali near the al-Qayara district of Mosul, the provincial capital of Nineveh Province which is also held by Daesh.
The source, who did not want to be named, further said the Iraqi forces also regained control of a crossing at the threshold of the town of al-Shirqat in Salahuddin Province as well as the road connecting it to Haj Ali village in neighboring Nineveh.
“This road was used by Daesh to provide its members with weapons,” the source said.
The news came hours after Iraqi forces retook the village of Kharaib Jabr south of Mosul as the liberation operations continue in the area.
The village is located near the southern outskirts of Mosul, which has served as the main stronghold of Daesh terrorists in Iraq since 2014.
Fighters from the Hashd al-Shaabi, which is Iraq’s Popular Mobilization force and Kurdish forces, are also involved in the liberation operations being carried out in the embattled Nineveh Province.
In another development, the Iraqi War Media Cell said Iraqi warplanes have dropped thousands of leaflets on the district of Kawir, southeast of Mosul, informing the residents that the Iraqi troops will be entering the district soon.
The leaflets identified safe routes for civilians to exit the district and urged the residents to keep away from the positions of Daesh, which are legitimate targets.
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