Iraq announces start of operation to retake Fallujah

The jihadist bastion has been out of government control for nearly two and a half years

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi today announced the start of a military operation to retake the city of Fallujah from the Islamic State (ISIS) group.

The fight to recapture the jihadist bastion, which has been out of government control for nearly two and a half years, will be one of the toughest in Iraq's war against ISIS.

"We are beginning the operation to liberate Fallujah," Abadi said in a statement.

"The Iraqi flag will be raised high over the land of Fallujah," he said.

The premier said that special forces, soldiers, police, militia forces and pro-government tribesmen will take part in the operation to retake the city, located in Anbar province just 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

The announcement settles the issue of which ISIS-held city Iraq should seek to retake next — a subject of debate among Iraqi officials and international forces helping the country fight the jihadists.

Iraq's second city Mosul was the American military's recommended target, but powerful Iraqi militias may have helped force the issue by deploying reinforcements to the Fallujah area in preparation for an assault.

Iraqi forces have begun laying the groundwork for the recapture of Mosul, but progress has been slow and an assault to retake the city remains far off.

Iraqi planes have dropped thousands of leaflets – safe passage cards on Falluja – according to a statement from Iraq's Joint Operations Command.

The US-led anti-ISIS coalition carried out seven strikes in the Fallujah area last week, and Iraq said it has also bombed the city with US-supplied F-16 warplanes.

On Sunday, Iraq's Joint Operations Command warned civilians still in Fallujah, estimated to number in the tens of thousands, to leave the city.

It also said that families who cannot leave should raise a white flag over their location and stay away from ISIS headquarters and gatherings. Meanwhile, families who are unable to flee the city have been told to raise a white flag above their homes and the military has also told families to call or text an emergency line to seek evacuation.

Officials said that several dozen families had fled the city, but ISIS has sought to prevent civilians from leaving, and forces surrounding Fallujah have also been accused of preventing foodstuffs from entering.

Iraqi forces have in recent days been massing around the city, which has been out of government control since January 2014 and the Human Rights Watch warned last month, that ISIS was barring civilians from leaving Falluja and that residents faced starvation due to food shortages and exorbitant prices after an extended siege.

Anti-government fighters seized it after the army was withdrawn, and Fallujah later became one of ISIS's main strongholds.

Fallujah and Mosul, the capital of the northern province of Nineveh, are the last two major cities ISIS still holds in Iraq.

Fallujah is almost completely surrounded by Iraqi forces, who have regained significant ground in the Anbar province in recent months, including its capital, Ramadi, further up the Euphrates River valley.

American forces launched two major assaults on Fallujah in 2004 in which they saw some of their heaviest fighting since the Vietnam War.