Falluja assault: Iraq PM announces beginning of military operation

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has announced the start
of a military operation to retake Falluja from the so-called
Islamic State (IS).
"Zero hour for the liberation of Falluja has arrived. The
moment of great victory has drawn near and Daesh has no
choice but to flee," he said .
Iraq's military has already warned civilians to leave the town.
Falluja was the first city to fall to IS in 2014 and is one of only
two of its remaining strongholds in Iraq.
The Iraqi military told state TV that those who could not flee
should raise a white flag above their homes.
The military, police and volunteer fighters virtually surround
the city, about 65 km (40 miles) west of Baghdad.
The Baghdad-based pro-Kurdish news website Shafaq said on
Sunday that close to 20,000 police troops had arrived on the
outskirts of Falluja ahead of the expected assault.
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The BBC's Middle East correspondent, Jim Muir, said between
60,000-90,000 civilians remained in Falluja. Many of them are
family members of IS fighters, he said.
IS militants launched a sweeping offensive in June 2014 that
overran large areas north and west of Baghdad, but security
forces and allied fighters have pushed the jihadists back with
support from US-led air strikes.
Iraq's military seized the nearby city of Ramadi from Islamic
State in December.The Iraqi army, police and irregular forces virtually surround
Falluja and have been heavily reinforced in preparation for an
assault on several fronts that military sources say could begin
in the next day or so, and which they expect to last two or
three weeks.
That may be optimistic, given the many weeks it took earlier
this year to take full control of Ramadi, another city further to
the west.
Falluja has been held by the militants of IS much longer, for
nearly two and a half years, and has withstood a massive
battering by government shelling and bombing.
But Iraqi military sources believe the number of militants there
has been cut roughly in half and that the battle for Falluja will
be a lot less tough than it was for Ramadi.
Should IS lose Falluja, it would leave the northern city of
Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city, as its only Iraqi stronghold. It
continues to hold large parts of territory in neighbouring Syria,
though that amount is also dwindling.
Last month, the United Nations and Human Rights Watch
warned civilians still living in Falluja were in danger of
starvation .
The World Food Programme said stocks were dwindling as
government forces trying to recapture the city had cut supply
routes, and IS had stopped people from leaving.
Some residents were eating grass to survive, HRW said.
One report in Vox.com said that a 110lb (50kg) bag of flour,
which costs about $7.50 in the US, had been sold for as much
as $4,166 (£2,925; €3,650).