Iraqi forces raise flag on IS stronghold

The ultra-hardline militants still control a significant portion of Falluja, where the conflict has forced the evacuation of most residents and many streets and houses remain mined with explosives. A spokesman for the US-led coalition backing Baghdad’s quest to recover large swathes of western and northern Iraq from Islamic State told Reuters that government forces were “close to the building but don’t have control yet.” 

A military statement said the federal police had raised the Iraqi state flag above the government building and were continuing to pursue insurgents. A Reuters photographer in a southern district of Falluja said clashes involving aerial bombardment, artillery and machine gun fire were continuing. Clouds of smoke could be seen rising up from areas closer to the city centre. 

Heavily armed Interior Ministry police units were advancing along Baghdad Street, the main east-west road running through the city, and commandos from the counter-terrorism service CTS had surrounded Falluja hospital, the statement said. 

Sabah al-Numani, a CTS spokesman, said on state television that snipers holed up inside the hospital, considered a nest of militants, were resisting but the facility was expected to be retaken within hours. Government forces, with air support from the US-led coalition, launched a major operation on May 23 to retake Falluja, an historic bastion of the Sunni Muslim insurgency against US forces that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003, and the Shi’ite-led governments that followed. 

The city is seen as a launchpad for recent Islamic State IS bombings in the capital, making the offensive a crucial part of the government’s campaign to improve security. US allies would prefer to concentrate on Islamic State-held Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city that is located in the far north of the country.