Only a third of Fallujah has been “cleared” of Daesh terrorists, the US-led coalition said Tuesday, days after the Iraqi government declared victory in the city west of Baghdad, which was held by the extremists for more than two years.
Other parts of the city are “contested,” said US Army Col. Christopher Garver, the Baghdad-based spokesman for the coalition, with clashes underway between Iraqi security forces and Daesh terrorists. Most of the cleared terrain is in the south of the city and “clearing operations continue outward from the city center,” Garver added.
Iraqi forces pushed into the center of Fallujah on Friday, retaking a government complex and the central hospital. That evening Brig. Gen. Haider Al-Obedi, with Iraq’s special forces, said his troops controlled 80 percent of the city.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi said Friday that Fallujah had “returned to the embrace of the nation,” and that remaining Daesh pockets would be “cleaned out within hours.”
But in recent days there have been persistent clashes between Iraqi forces and Daesh fighters holed up in dense residential neighborhoods along the city’s northern edge.
“What it looks like is (a Daesh) defensive belt around the city with not as stiff defenses inside,” Garver said, explaining that as Iraqi forces move out from the city center they may encounter additional pockets of stiff resistance.
“That could be their toughest fighting,” Garver added. Iraqi commanders on the ground say their forces continue to make progress and have killed hundreds of militants.
Iraqi special forces backed by US-led airstrikes have taken control of the neighborhoods of Al-Shurta and Al-Jughaifi, Al-Obeidi told the AP on Tuesday. He said Iraqi military engineers were clearing the streets and buildings of left-over bombs.
The top special forces commander for the Fallujah operation told local Al-Sumaria TV late Monday that the offensive killed 2,500 Daesh terrorists. Lt. Gen. Abdul-Wahab Al-Saadi offered no evidence to back up his claim. 
Iraqi troops have not disclosed their losses in Fallujah, though the Daesh group claims to have killed dozens.

Source: Arab News