NEAR FALLUJAH: Iraqi forces battled the militant Islamic State (IS) group on Monday in the opening stages of an operation to retake Fallujah, one of the toughest targets yet in Baghdad’s war against the militants.

As Iraqi forces struck targets in and around the militant bastion, which saw deadly battles in 2004 between insurgents and American forces, IS claimed bombings in neighbouring Syria that killed more than 120 people.

The militant group has increasingly turned to its traditional tactic of killing civilians in bombings as it faces battlefield losses, and spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani appeared to acknowledge in a recent statement that IS would probably lose more ground.

“In the early hours of the morning today, the heroic fighters advanced from different sides” to retake “all the areas occupied by (IS) around Fallujah”, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced on Monday in televised remarks.

Abadi said the operation was supposed to start earlier, but “political problems and also the events... threatening security inside Baghdad delayed some of the preparations”.

Iraq has been hit by a months-long political crisis that has paralysed the legislature, and demonstrators have twice broken into the fortified Green Zone area, storming parliament and Abadi’s office. IS has also carried out a series of deadly attacks in and around Baghdad this month.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2016