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19 March 2024

Iraqi army at south edge of Falluja

Published
By Agencies

Daesh militants fought back vigorously overnight against an onslaught by the Iraqi army on a southern district of the city of Falluja, the group's bastion near Baghdad, officers said on Tuesday.

Soldiers from the elite Rapid Response Team stopped their advance overnight about 500 metres (yards) from the al-Shuhada district, the southeastern part of city's main built-up area, an army commander and a police officer said.

''Our forces came under heavy fire, they are well dug in in trenches and tunnels,'' said the commander speaking in Camp Tariq, the rear army base south of Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

A staff member of Falluja's main hospital said they received reports of 32 civilians killed on Monday. The toll could not be confirmed by a second source.

Medical sources in the city had reported that the death toll in the city stood at about 50, 30 civilians and 20 militants, during the first week the offensive which started on May 23.

Falluja is the second-largest Iraqi city still under control of the militants, after Mosul, their de facto capital in the north that had a pre-war population of about 2 million.