On Top Of The News Email:news@arubatoday.com website: www.arubatoday.com Tel:+297 582-7800 Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Retaking Iraq

Iraqi PM Cites Early Success in Push to Retake Fallujah

Iraqi security forces and allied Shiite Popular Mobilization Forces and Sunni tribal fighters, take combat positions outside Fallujah, 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of
Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, May 23, 2016. Iraqi government forces on Monday pushed Islamic State militants out of some agricultural areas outside Fallujah as they
launched a military offensive to recapture the city from the extremists, officials said.

                                                                                                                                                                                                              (AP Photo/Rwa Faisal)

QASSIM ZAHRA                    tion.                          address late Sunday night,      The latest estimates put
SUSANNAH GEORGE                 The U.S.-led coalition car-    flanked by senior military      the number of IS fighters
Associated Press                ried out two airstrikes, the   commanders. The city has        in all of Anbar province at
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s           Pentagon said, part of an      been under the control of       about 1,000 and “dropping
prime minister hailed “big      aerial campaign that has       Islamic State militants since   quickly,” Davis said. The
successes” Monday by            seen an average of two         January 2014.                   number of fighters in Fal-
government troops after         bombings a day over the        “The Iraqi flag will be raised  lujah also has been falling,
launching an offensive to       past week in the city about    high over the land of Fal-      he said, but he added that
retake Fallujah from Islamic    40 miles (65 kilometers) west  lujah,” he vowed, saying it     he did not have a firm num-
State militants, but the op-    of Baghdad.                    would be taken back from        ber. One previous coalition
eration promises to be one      Prime Minister Haider al-      those who “kidnapped” it.       estimate put it at 500-700
of the toughest challenges      Abadi toured the Fallujah      Originally planned to start     fighters.
yet for the country’s strug-    front line dressed in the      more than two months            The offensive follows a se-
gling security forces.          all- black fatigues of Iraq’s  ago, the offensive was de-      ries of territorial gains over
Troops recaptured some          elite counterterrorism forc-   layed by political infighting   IS in western Iraq, but it still
agricultural areas in Gar-      es, saying the troops had      and the deteriorating se-       could delay plans to win
ma, a district along the        achieved “more than what       curity situation in Baghdad,    back the second-largest
northeastern edge of Fal-       was planned for,” and “big     Abadi said.                     city of Mosul, the focus of
lujah, under intensified Iraqi  successes,” but he did not     Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a        the U.S. plan to defeat the
airstrikes and heavy artil-     elaborate.                     Pentagon spokesman, said        militants in Iraq and neigh-
lery, said Col. Mahmoud         He had triumphantly an-        he does not believe the         boring Syria.
al-Mardhi, who leads Shiite     nounced the start of the       Iraqis have gotten into the
militia forces in the opera-    operation in a televised       city yet.                              Continued on Page 2