The Iraqi army continued its advances in Anbar province in Western Iraq by seizing back a strategic region near the city of Fallujah on Friday.Scores of the ISIL terrorists were killed and wounded in tough battle with the Iraqi army.
The Iraqi forces also managed to defuse 17 bombs and destroyed four missiles of the ISIL and 23 anti-tank missiles.
"On Thursday, battlefield sources announced that the Takfiri terrorists in Fallujah city were surrounded from the Northern, Eastern and Southern directions."
"A large-scale operation to retake the city will resume imminently," the sources added.
Asked by FNA of reasons for the Iraqi forces' slow advance in Fallujah operations, a field source said that the ISIL has planted hundreds of booby-trapped bombs around the city to slow down the Iraqi army and is using the Fallujah residents as its human shield.
"Therefore, the Iraqi army should take precaution to lower the death toll among its forces and the civilians," the source added.
The source also said that the ISIL has also forced the Fallujah residents, including women and children, to pick up arms and help the terrorist group in the war against the Iraqi forces.
The sources said since the beginning of the victorious operations by the Iraqi forces for the liberation of the city of Fallujah (60 km Northwest of Baghdad), Iraqi citizens have been able to run away from the areas where they had spent years living under a blockade, hunger and terror since January 2014.
""Local sources confirmed today that 3,000 families have fled the Iraqi province of Anbar as the offensive against ISIL continues to deal severe blows to the terrorists.""
Ismail al-Issawy, a management member of the central hospital in Fallujah, said that 1,500 families have fled the city center and about 500 families left Zobaa village, all headed towards the Iraqi army and local voluntary troops positions in Anbar province.
In the Iraqi city of Fallujah about 40 miles (65 kilometres) west of Baghdad, Iraqi forces on Thursday cleared territory recently retaken from the Islamic State group.
Under heavy ISIS counter-attacks, Iraqi troops swept east across Fallujah's southern Shuhada neighbourhood.
Click on the Picure to watch ISF operation inside Fallujah
.
Iraq's elite counter-terrorism forces secured the southern edge of Fallujah on Sunday and pushed into the city itself on Wednesday.
Iraq's elite counter-terrorism forces secured the southern
edge of Fallujah on Sunday and pushed into the city itself on
Wednesday.
The militant group launched mortars and rockets on Iraqi forces.
The operation to retake Fallujah was announced in late May. It has been under the control of the militant group for longer than any other territory in Iraq, and the city has proven a complex target as IS has had more than two years to dig in and erect defensive positions.
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