Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday declared victory over the Islamic State in Fallujah after a day of rapid advances as security forces pushed deep into the city center, dislodging the militants who have controlled it for nearly 2½ years.
In a televised address, Abadi said that some “pockets” of resistance remained in the city, about 45 miles west of Baghdad, but that it was largely under the control of security forces. Earlier in the day, Iraqi forces raised the country’s flag over the local council building, while commanders reported that they had retaken a string of neighborhoods as the militants abandoned their positions.
The Islamic State has been “broken” in the city, said Col. Abdelrahman al-Khazali, a police spokesman.
But the gains also compounded a growing humanitarian crisis in the surrounding province of Anbar, as thousands of civilians who had been trapped inside the city took advantage of the Islamic State’s collapsing grip to flee. Aid agencies working with the displaced said they were struggling to provide even basic assistance. Tents had run out, and food and water supplies were dangerously low.
Defeating the Islamic State in Fallujah deprives the group of one of its last strongholds in Iraq and gives a boost to the embattled Abadi.
Backed by airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition, Iraq’s special forces have won a series of victories against the Islamic State elsewhere in the western province.
Fallujah, though, holds particular importance. Dubbed the “City of Mosques,” it is of symbolic significance to Sunni Muslims and was the first Iraqi city to fall to the militants. It was in Fallujah that U.S. forces endured their bloodiest fighting of the Iraq War, battling the Islamic State’s predecessor, al-Qaeda in Iraq, on the city’s streets 12 years ago.