• published: 29 May 2016
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The Iraqi army is preparing for a final assault to retake Fallujah from ISIS as jihadists continue to hold 50,000 civilians hostage amid fierce fighting. Hundreds of residents have managed to flee the extremist stronghold with Iraqi forces surrounding the city and on the verge of launching a new offensive today. A troop build-up has been completed around Fallujah with the last battalion having arrived at dawn today at the sprawling Tariq Camp. He declined to reveal the exact timing of the expected assault. But another Iraqi commander, Abdelwahab al Saadi, told Al Jazeera: 'These forces will break into Fallujah in the next few hours to liberate it from Daesh.' Al Jazeera also reported that troops were waiting for orders for a final assault. Fallujah, about 40 miles west of Baghdad, is one of the last major ISIS strongholds in Iraq. The extremist group still controls territory in the country's north and west, including Mosul, Iraq's second largest city. The offensive comes after the US-led coalition pounded terrorist Among the terrorists killed, was the area's commander, who was one of 70 jihadis killed in the airstrikes. In a weekly update of operations across Iraq and Syria, Warren said: 'We've killed more than 70 enemy fighters, including Maher Al-Bilawi, who is the commander of ISIL forces in Fallujah.' Warren said the Al-Bilawi commander was killed two days ago while an Iraqi officer and a local official had reported his death last week. Tens of thousands of Iraqi forces on May 22-23 launched an offensive to retake Fallujah, one of only two major Iraqi cities still controlled by ISIS, the other being Mosul. ISIS fighters holed up in Fallujah are believed to number around 1,000 and while the myriad forces involved in the operation have moved closer, none have yet entered the city proper. Fallujah is one of the terror group's most important bastions. The city has been surrounded by pro-government forces for months and concern has been mounting among humanitarian groups that the population was being deliberately starved. Nasr Muflahi, the Norwegian Refugee Council's Iraq director said: 'The situation inside Fallujah is getting critical by the day.' Despite plans before the operation for safe corridors, few civilians have managed to flee the Fallujah battle in recent days. The biggest group slipped out on Friday. The militants meanwhile launched an attack Sunday on the town of Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad, which was recaptured by government troops last month. A military officer said the extremists entered three neighborhoods and were engaged in heavy clashes with Iraqi forces backed by U.S.-led airstrikes. The officer was not authorized to release information so spoke on condition of anonymity. Fallujah, which saw some of the heaviest fighting of the 2003-2011 U.S.-led military intervention, was the first city in Iraq to fall to IS. The extremists seized control of Fallujah in January 2014, six months before they swept across northern and western Iraq and declared a caliphate. Police Lieutenant General Raed Shakir Jawdat said: 'Our forces evacuated 460 people... most of them women and children.' One of the lucky civilians who managed to flee the city with more than ten of her family, Umm Omar said: 'ISIS gave us food that only animals would eat.' Across the border, the ISIS Syrian capital Raqa was also coming under increasing pressure. A Kurdish-Arab alliance has launched an operation to retake the city, where an estimated 300,000 people still living there are becoming increasingly desperate to flee. According to anti-ISIS activist group Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), residents were paying smugglers £270 each to try to escape. Hamoud al-Musa of RBSS said: 'There is nearly no one walking in the streets. People are afraid of a brutal onslaught from the warplanes, whether coalition, Russian, or even regime. He said ISIS had set up a few new checkpoints in Raqa city and was 'amassing its forces on the front lines' further north, he said. UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien said a total of 592,700 Syrians were living under siege, an increase of some 75,000 from a previous estimate. He told the Security Council Friday that the use of siege and starvation as a weapon of war was 'reprehensible' and 'must stop immediately'.