Death toll in Fallujah rises

Iraqi government troops positioned on the eastern outskirts of the city of Fallujah in Anbar province in western Iraq bombed the city yesterday with artillery, air strikes and armoured vehicles, bringing the death toll in the city to more than five hundred people, with nearly a thousand injured, since the beginning of the year, As-Sabeel newspaper reported.

The bombing concentrated on the neighbourhoods of Golan Heights, Andalusia, Aljughaifi, Alshuhada and Byblos.

As-Sabeel cites the chief resident at Fallujah General Hospital as saying that “the hospital received nine injured, including three children,” which brings the number of victims of the bombing by government forces on the city since the beginning of military operations began to 507 dead and 1,806 injured.

Medical sources in Fallujah said that two civilians were killed on Friday and ten others were wounded including a child and three women after the Iraqi army bombed the city with artillery and mortars. The bombing was focused on the area of Nuaimiya, Alshuhada, Alaskari, Aldubbat and Nazzal, damaging houses and shops. People in the city said the Iraqi Air Force flew over the Nuaimiya area and south of Fallujah.

The majority of Fallujah’s residents were displaced following the Iraqi army military operation earlier this year, which led to the killing and wounding of hundreds of civilians. Some residents returned to the city after the government troops withdrew the siege they had imposed on the city.

The Iraqi authorities accused militants of the Islamic State, or ISIS, of taking over some of the city’s neighbourhoods and hiding inside them. Local tribes militants and elements of the Islamic state took control of Mosul, Tikrit and other cities and towns in the provinces of Nineveh, Salahuddin, Tamim, Diyala and Anbar, north and west of Baghdad, following an attack which began on 10 June, leading the Iraqi forces to almost entirely collapse in those areas.

The government of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki began a military operation earlier this year after its forces dispersed a sit-in in Anbar and local tribes formed military councils to defend themselves. The Iraqi government insists that it is waging a war on “terrorism” aimed at the Islamic state.

Meanwhile, As-Sabeel also reported that the Islamic State announced that it had seized control of the towers at the Speicher base in Tikrit where the Iraqi government forces have been stationed for some time. In a separate incident, the organisation said that many fell dead and others were wounded in two cars bombings in Basra.

The organisation announced through its Twitter account that its fighters took control of the building where Iraqi Special Forces have been stationed. It added that its elements managed to kill dozens of government troops that were stationed at the base.

Media sources confirmed that ISIS militants began on Saturday evening a large-scale attack on Speicher base in Tikrit in Salahuddin province north of Baghdad, a city partly controlled by insurgents. An ISIS spokesperson pointed out that the armed attack on the Speicher base is regarded as a final step to eliminate what he called “Iranian elements hiding there”.

Sources confirmed earlier that government forces had failed to implement airdrops using two helicopters four kilometres south of the city of Tikrit, in an attempt to regain control of the old headquarters of the Iraqi army’s fourth brigade, but they were met with heavy fire from anti-aircraft automatic weapons forcing the helicopters to withdraw. The witnesses said that Tikrit and the town of Ouja are still under the control of militants, but government forces are currently stationed in two locations close to the city of Tikrit; the first is Speicher base, which lies ten kilometres northwest of the city, and the second is the University of Tikrit, which lies three kilometres north east of the city.