Washington // The ISIL commander in Fallujah was killed in US-led coalition air and artillery strikes on the Iraqi city, a military spokesman said on Friday.
“We’ve killed more than 70 enemy fighters, including Maher Al Bilawi, who is the commander of ISIL forces in Fallujah,” Col Steve Warren said.
“This, of course, won’t completely cause the enemy to stop fighting, but it’s a blow. And it creates confusion and it causes the second-in-command to have to move up. It causes other leadership to have to move around,” he said.
Twenty strikes on the besieged city destroyed ISIL fighting positions and gun emplacements over the past four days, he said.
Iraqi forces launched an operation to recapture Fallujah from ISIL at the start of the week.
Between 500 and 1,000 ISIL fighters hold Fallujah, and about 50,000 civilians are trapped inside the city, with the extremists trying to kill those who attempt to flee.
US planes have dropped leaflets telling residents to avoid ISIL areas, Col Warren said.
“Those leaflets directed those who cannot leave to put white sheets on their roofs to mark their locations. The Iraqi army is working hard to establish evacuation routes. And the local Anbar government has set up camps for displaced civilians.”
Meanwhile, a leader of a Shiite militia helping government troops to recapture Fallujah said the final battle for the city would start in “days, not weeks’’.
The first phase of the offensive that started on Monday is nearly finished, with the city completely encircled, said Hadi Al Amiri, the leader of the Iranian-backed Badr Organisation.
Mr Al Amiri spoke to Iranian state TV from the operations area with prime minister Haider Al Abadi standing by his side.
At the end of last year, Mr Al Abadi said this year would be the year of the final victory over ISIL, which declared a caliphate over adjacent Iraqi and Syrian territories two years ago.
Fallujah is a bastion of the insurgency that fought the US occupation of Iraq and the Shiite-led authorities that replaced Sunni leader Saddam Hussein.
Mr Al Amiri said this week that the Shiite paramilitary coalition known as Popular Mobilisation would take part in the encirclement operations, but would let the army storm Fallujah.
Popular Mobilisation would enter the city only if the army’s attack failed, he said.
The army has defused more than 250 explosive devices planted by ISIL on roads and in villages to delay the troops advance toward Fallujah, state TV said, citing military officers.
The imminent assault on Fallujah has raised fears for civilians trapped there. The UN on Friday said they were being prevented from escaping by ISIL.
Mr Al Amiri called on civilians to leave the city from a an exit called the Al Salam Junction.
Only about 800 people have managed to flee so far, mostly from the outlying areas of Fallujah, said Melissa Fleming, from the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).
“Food has been in very short supply. We are hearing accounts that people are relying on expired rice and dried dates and that’s about it for their diet. They have to rely on unsafe water sources, including drainage water from the irrigation canals.”
The death toll since the start of the military operation on Monday has reached about 50, including 30 civilians and 20 militants, a source in the city’s main hospital said on Friday.
Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, on Friday called on forces battling to retake the city to protect civilians trapped there.
“Saving innocent people from harm’s way is the most important thing, even more so than targeting the enemy,” Mr Al Sistani said in a comments delivered by his representative at Friday prayers in the holy city of Karbala.
The UNHCR said the plight of civilians in Fallujah has triggered an exodus from Mosul, the other main Iraqi city held by ISIL.
More than 4,200 Iraqis from Mosul fled to Syria this month, and as many as 50,000 more are expected to leave the ISIL-held city and cross the border, Ms Fleming said.
She said the mass flight appeared to be driven by reports that ISIL had stepped up executions of men and boys in Fallujah after the Iraqi government offensive to retake the city. Iraqi forces, with help from a US-led coalition, are expected to push later this year to retake Mosul, ISIL’s de facto capital in Iraq.
“We’ve actually seen a spike in the numbers of Iraqi refugees who are risking the dangerous crossing into Syria in desperation. Just picture this, we have refugees fleeing to Syria.
“So it’s a desperate bid to escape ISIL-held Mosul,” Ms Fleming said.
“The reasons for that are the pending battle to retake it. They, I’m sure, hear what’s going on in Fallujah and want to leave before they too are trapped. But also there is fighting in the surrounding areas that is driving people to leave.”
The 4,266 Iraqi refugees from Mosul, who walked for several days through extremist-held territory into Syria’s Kurdish-held Hassakeh province, “are living now in relative safety, if you can say that for Syria”, Ms Fleming said.
The refugees are being housed at Al Hol camp, about 14km from the Iraq border.
“Right now it’s a bit over 4,000 but it is in anticipation of 50,000. There are contingencies for potential numbers who could be coming in ... They don’t have many other options of places to flee in that region, so we’re getting ready.”
The UNHCR has begun a five-day operation to fly in aid supplies from Jordan to Qamishli in Hassakeh, where it will be loaded on to lorries for distribution to Iraqi refugees and internally displaced Syrians.
* Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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The specs: 2018 BMW X2 and X3
Price, as tested: Dh255,150 (X2); Dh383,250 (X3)
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged inline four-cylinder (X2); 3.0-litre twin-turbo inline six-cylinder (X3)
Power 192hp @ 5,000rpm (X2); 355hp @ 5,500rpm (X3)
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Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
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Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
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