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Breaking: Iraqis Re-Capture Fallujah
Via the WSJ:
Published in Foreign PolicyBAGHDAD—Iraqi security forces said they seized Fallujah’s central government compound, their first significant victory inside the city in a weekslong battle against Islamic State. Federal police forces flew the Iraqi flag over the city’s mayoral office Friday, the military said in a statement. The building is part of a large administrative compound that also houses the city’s police headquarters and courthouses. But the military stopped short of declaring full control over Fallujah, saying it was still battling a significant number of militant fighters in the city. The military said government forces had surrounded Fallujah General Teaching Hospital in the city’s downtown district, a building they said the terror group had used as a command center. Fallujah was the first major city seized by Islamic State in 2014 during a blitz that saw the Sunni Muslim extremists take over about one-third of Iraq. “We hope within the next few days to cleanse the whole of Fallujah from Daesh militants,” said Brig. Yahya Rasool, spokesman for the joint operations command in Baghdad, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
Did they find anybody still alive in Fallujah?
How come they did not refer to it as “ISIL”?
I am sure it’s Bush’s fault but can somebody direct me to an updated source explaining that.
Will citizens of Fallujah be able to get a discount/credit bribes they were forced to give ISIS when Iraqi officials come for theirs?
Fallujah hasn’t been recaptured; not even the WSJ‘s headline makes that claim. A government building has been captured and held long enough to run up a flag. That implies a penetration, nothing more.
The JOC’s remarks, in that same article, make the situation clear:
“We hope within the next few days to cleanse the whole of Fallujah from Daesh militants,” said Brig. Yahya Rasool [JOC spokesman]
The city hasn’t been captured until it’s all under control. And in the present case, disinfected.
Eric Hines
Good luck with that. I’m pretty sure that doesn’t even work in Chicago.