Video footage has emerged from the frontlines of the battle for Fallujah. It shows Iraqi government forces and pro-government militias fighting their way through the city, held by the Islamic State (Isis) for two years.
Following the forces entry into the city and their retaking of key government buildings, the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said his government had retaken the western city for the people of Iraq. We promised to liberate Fallujah, and it has returned to the embrace of the nation, he said.
However, weeks of bloody fighting in Fallujah have taken their toll on the citys civilian population. More than 80,000 civilians have left the Iraqi city since the beginning of May. A further 25,000 civilians are also expected to leave.
While government forces may be in the ascendancy on the ground, Islamic State propaganda claimed to have killed 50 Iraqi troops in the city on 19 June.
Atrocities have been committed on both sides of the battle that ensued when government forces, supported by Shia militias, began their bloody advance into the city just to the west of Baghdad. Aid agencies have warned that Fallujah residents, some of them children, risk being forced to fight for Isis as the militant group uses food to lure the starving civilians to enlist.
Residents from the city have drowned or been killed by IS snipers as they attempted to leave Fallujah across the Euphrates. Footage has emerged of the inhabitants using improvised rafts in desperate attempts to leave the embattled city.
They were reported to have used refrigerators and cupboards to cross the river rather than face the landmines and makeshift bombs left on other roads by Islamic State. At the same time, civilians caught up in the advance by Iraqi Army and so-called Popular Mobilisation Forces risk torture at the hands of pro-government Shia militia.
According to Yahya al-Muhamadi, an Anbar council member working with displaced civilians and quoted by the Associated Press, five of those detained died while in the groups custody.
