Daily Times

FALLUJAH: The commander of Iraqi forces that retook Fallujah from the Islamic State (IS) group said on Sunday that the operation had been carried out with limited damage to the city.

“The percentage of destruction in Fallujah is no more than 10 per cent and is spread across all neighbourhoods of the city,” Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al-Saadi said. on Sunday, he and other commanders announced that Fallujah had been brought under full control of the security forces after they retook IS’s last positions in the Jolan neighbourhood.

The recapture of Fallujah bar a few remaining pockets of IS fighters and brings to a close a broad offensive launched more than a month ago on one of the jihadists’ most emblematic bastions. “This battle was the cleanest urban battle in the whole of Iraq,” Saadi told Iraqiya state television.

“The level of damage in Fallujah caused by military operations and by the terrorists is between 10 and 15 per cent,” said Mohammed Yassin, a member of the Anbar provincial council. Southern neighbourhoods appeared to have suffered most as elite forces first breached IS defences around the city from the south.

The militants put up less resistance than expected once they were cornered in northern neighbourhoods. While many of the city’s buildings bore the scars of war, most were still standing. The US-led coalition offered some aerial assistance during the Fallujah operation but was less involved than during the offensive to retake Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province in which Fallujah is also located.

In Ramadi, the United Nations said that the destruction, which some Iraqi government officials had estimated at 80 per cent, was worse than anywhere else in Iraq. More than 80,000 civilians were forced to flee Fallujah during the operation and limited damage to the city would offer some hope they can return to their homes faster than Ramadi residents.

Director at the Norwegian Refugee Council Iraq, Nasr Muflahi said, “It is still too early to speak of returns for the tens of thousands of civilians who fled from Fallujah. We urge prudence and restraint in the communications with the displaced families as we have seen how, elsewhere, areas recaptured by Iraqi forces are still unsafe.”

Muflahi added that a thorough mine-clearing operation is needed to be undertaken to determine which areas were safe. He noted that IS systematically rigs homes with booby traps and plants roadside bombs when it retreats from an area.

APP/AFP