Fallujah victory in sight: Iraq

The commander of Iraq's operation to retake Fallujah from Daesh (IS) group said Tuesday victory was days away, but progress had been slowed by huge numbers of bombs and traps.

"The security forces are advancing towards central Fallujah from the southern side but doing so cautiously, to preserve civilian lives," Lieutenant-General Abdelwahab al-Saadi told AFP.

"In the coming days, we will declare the liberation of Fallujah," said Saadi, overall commander of the operation launched on May 22-23 to retake the bastion west of Baghdad.

The Joint Operations Command admitted that progress was being slowed by the astounding number of improvised explosive devices laid by IS in the city.

"There are tunnels and between 150 and 200 bombs are defused every 100 metres (yards)," it said in a statement.

"Our information is that IS has prepared car bombs, which they are hiding in homes with the intention of attacking us when we enter," the operations command said.

Residents trying to reach the safety of displacement camps set up south of Fallujah were taking massive risks to cross the Euphrates River.

"I saw three children being put in an open refrigerator so they could cross the river, but it sank and one of the children, a little girl, couldn't be saved so she died," a 45-year-old survivor told the Norwegian Refugee Council.

The International Rescue Committee said at least four people, three of them children, have drowned in the Euphrates trying to flee the conflict over the past few days.

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