100 killed, 530 wounded in Fallujah

Some 100 civilians have been killed and 530 wounded since the outbreak of violence in the western Iraqi city of Fallujah two months ago, medical sources told the Anadolu news agency.

The media spokesman of Fallujah General Hospital Wessam Al-Issawy said in a statement to Anadolu that his team had received a corpse and seven wounded civilians today as a result of the army’s shelling. Al-Issawy said many of those affected are women and children.

The head of the Gamila clan in the Anbar province said random shelling continued on the eastern neighborhoods.

“Armed men from Al-Ashaer in Al-Karma, east of Fallujah, confronted army troops when they tried to storm their neighborhood from the eastern side, which led to violent clashes that resulted in the withdrawal of the army from Al-Karma,” he said, adding that the militants are deployed around Al-Karma and will not allow the army to storm the city.

The Sunni-majority Anbar province has been witnessing sporadic clashes between the Iraqi army and the so-called “Al-Ashaer Revolutionaries”, who are armed men from Al-Asaher confronting army troops trying to enter Fallujah and Ramadi.

The clashes came against the backdrop of the arrest of a Sunni MP, Ahmed Al-Alwani, and the killing of his brother on December 28 last year.

Since December 21, the Anbar province has been subjected to a large-scale military operation by the Iraqi army who is targeting Al-Qaeda affiliated militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant group.