New York: Iraqi military on Sunday asked the residents of ISIS-held Falluja city to flee their homes as they prepared for an operation to wipe out the terror group from the metropolis.
“I am calling for citizens who are inside Falluja to leave their areas and head towards safe corridors. In the coming few days, the operations to liberate Falluja will be launched,” CNN quoted Iraqi Joint Operations Command Yahya Rasoul as saying on Iraqi TV.
Rasoul added, “The completion of all the preparations and plans to liberate the city of Falluja and to eliminate ISIS militants from the city.”
Falluja, in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, has been under ISIS control since January 2014.
Last month, Human Rights Watch warned that ISIS was barring civilians from leaving Falluja and that residents faced starvation due to food shortages.
The Iraqi security forces and Shiite militias known as Popular Mobilisation Units yesterday reportedly safely evacuated 30 families who managed to escape the city.(ANI)