AL-QAEDA-linked militiamen have been driven out of Iraq’s Fallujah and it is now in the hands of local tribesmen, a senior tribal sheikh said on Monday.
‘There is no ISIL in the city,’ Sheikh Ali al-Hammad said, referring to Al-Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. ‘They all left.’
‘The fighters inside are from the sons of the tribes, and they are here to defend the city,’ he said, without elaborating.
Iraq’s army yesterday launched a major operation in Anbar Province to clear the area of al-Qaeda-affiliated militants.
The operation was carried out in the northern and southern areas of the city of Ramadi.
Iraqi military officials said that dozens of militants loyal to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have so far been killed in Anbar.
The violence broke out on December 30, 2013, when the army removed an anti-government protest camp in Ramadi. Authorities said the camp was used as ‘headquarters for the leadership of al-Qaeda.’
The violence later spread to nearby Fallujah, where security forces withdrew from some areas.
On Monday, Iraqi forces killed 30 ISIL militants in Fallujah. Local tribesmen supporting the Iraqi government also killed three militants and injured four others in Ramadi.
Earlier in the day, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged the people of Fallujah and its tribes to ‘expel the terrorists’ so that ‘their areas are not subjected to the dangers of armed clashes.’
In a bid to prop up its puppet Maliki, the US is speeding up the supply of military equipment to Iraq.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the US was working closely with Baghdad to develop a ‘holistic strategy’ to isolate al-Qaeda affiliated groups.
He said there had already been some successes but the situation remained ‘fluid’.
Carney said: ‘We’re accelerating our foreign military sales, deliveries, and are looking to provide an additional shipment of Hellfire missiles as early as this spring.
‘I can add that in addition to those Hellfire missiles through our FMS (Foreign Military Sales) programme we will also be providing ten ScanEagle surveillance UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) in the upcoming weeks and 48 Raven surveillance UAVs later this year.’
US Secretary of State John Kerry has already stated that no US forces will return to Iraq.