Troops clear Fallujah mines in Iraq

Iraqi security forces enter central Fallujah

Iraqi government forces cleared mines and explosives left behind by the Daesh group in recently recaptured areas of Fallujah, as fighting continued in other parts of the city on Saturday, an Iraqi military official said.
Military operations were ongoing in Fallujah, with the air force hitting targets in the city including Daesh snipers positioned near the main hospital, Brig. Haider Al Obeidi told.
Troops were advancing towards the hospital cautiously, concerned that militants stationed there may use patients as human shields, he said.
Obeidi's comments came a day after Iraqi special forces swept into Fallujah, recapturing most of the city as Daesh's two-year-old grip crumbled after weeks of fighting. The Fallujah offensive began in late May, and Daesh defenses in much of the city collapsed abruptly.
On Friday, Obeidi said that Iraqi troops controlled 80 per cent of the city, with Daesh fighters concentrated in four districts on its northern edge.
It was a major step towards removing the Daesh group from its last major foothold in Iraq's western Anbar province, the heartland of the country's minority. Should Fallujah be declared fully recaptured, this would leave the city of Mosul - Iraq's second largest - as Daesh only remaining urban stronghold in the country.
The militants overran Fallujah in early 2014, the first major town to fall into Daesh hands before it overran most of Anbar and much of northern Iraq.
Iraqi troops have been advancing under the cover of airstrikes by the US-led coalition and Iraq's air force.
The operation inside the city of Fallujah was being conducted by the Iraqi army, regional and federal police forces as well as special anti-terrorism units.
Militias known as the Popular Mobilisation Force were outside Fallujah and have not taken part in the recent battles.
Aid groups estimated that 50,000 civilians were trapped inside Fallujah when the assault began several weeks ago, and they say that 30,000 to 42,000 of those have fled since then. The majority have been staying in camps in areas around the city.
During Friday's push by the government, thousands of residents fled the city, some swimming across the Euphrates river to reach safety.
On Friday evening, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi spoke on national TV from the joint command center, congratulating the troops on their victories. "We promised to liberate Fallujah, and it has returned to the embrace of the nation," he said.
The conflict in Iraq has forced more than 3.3 million people to flee their homes. Iraq is also hosting up to 300,000 refugees who have fled the civil war in neighboring Syria. Most are living in camps or informal settlements.
In the central province of Salahuddin, where Daesh suffered a major defeat last year when it lost former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, government forces pushed north of the province toward Daesh territory, said Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasoul.
Rasoul said the fighting is concentrating north of the oil refinery of Beiji, Iraq's largest. The refinery has not been working since IS took large parts of northern and central Iraq in 2014, declaring a caliphate.
Despite being under attack in Iraq and Syria, the extremists retaliated with a suicide truck bomb attack near the office of a Kurdish group in northern Iraq.
The blast killed at least one person, according to Shallal Abdoul, the mayor of Tuz Khormato
Fallujah, where US forces suffered some of their worst losses since the Vietnam War, looms large in modern militant mythology but Mosul is much larger. Patrick Martin, Iraq analyst with the Institute for the Study of War, argued that Daesh could survive the loss of Fallujah.
"The Daesh messaging machine will likely find ways to continue attracting recruits and encouraging lone wolf attacks despite the loss of Fallujah," he said.
The group, which has recorded few military successes on home turf and grabbed more headlines for claiming attacks in the West, now faces offensives on its Syria de facto capital Raqa and on Mosul.
"Mosul and Raqa could be very different battles since when they fall the delusions of holding a caliphate completely fall away," said Patrick Skinner, an analyst with the Soufan Group.

• MENA