Baghdad // Iraqi troops entered Fallujah from three directions on Monday, marking a new and perilous phase in the week-old operation to retake the city from ISIL.
The advance came as a wave of bombings claimed by the extremist group killed at least 24 people in Baghdad and near the Iraqi capital.
“Iraqi forces entered Fallujah under air cover from the international coalition, the Iraqi air force and army aviation, and supported by artillery and tanks,” said Lt Gen Abdelwahab Al Saadi, the commander of the operation.
The pre-dawn push into Fallujah was led by the elite counter-terrorism service (CTS), Iraq’s best trained and most seasoned fighting unit.
CTS Brig Haider Al Obeidi said they started pushing into Fallujah from its southern edge. He described the clashes as fierce, with ISIL deploying snipers and releasing a volley of mortar rounds.
The extremists are believed to have about 1,000 fighters in the city.
Iraqi forces have not yet ventured into the city centre but they recaptured some areas in a southern suburb after crossing a bridge, and took up positions on the eastern and northern fringes, commanders said.
Operations in the past week have focused on retaking rural areas around Fallujah, which lies just 50 kilometres west of Baghdad.
These have been led by the paramilitary force known as Hashed Al Shabi, which is dominated by Tehran-backed Shiite militias. On Monday, they were attempting to clear an area north-west of Fallujah called Saqlawiya, officers said.
The battle for the city captured by ISIL in 2014 is likely to be a protracted one, with Iraqi forces advancing slowly to minimise civilian casualties. An estimated 50,000 civilians are trapped in the city, sparking fears that ISIL could try to use them as human shields.
The few hundred families who have been able to flee so far lived in outlying areas, with the biggest wave of displaced reaching camps on Saturday night.
“We expect bigger waves of displacement the fiercer the fighting gets,” said Nasr Muflahi of the Norwegian Refugee Council.
In Amriyat Al Fallujah, a government-controlled town to the south of the city, civilians trickled in, starving and exhausted after walking through the countryside for hours at night, dodging ISIL surveillance.
“I just decided to risk everything. I was either going to save my children or die with my children,” said Ahmad Sabih, 40, who reached the NRC-run camp early on Sunday.
A senior police commander said his forces had assisted 800 civilians fleeing areas north of Fallujah on Monday.
Fallujah is one of just two major urban centres in Iraq still held by ISIL. They also hold Mosul, the country’s second city and ISIL’s de facto capital in Iraq, east of which Kurdish-led forces launched a fresh offensive on Sunday.
The extremist group has appeared to be weakened in recent months and has been losing territory consistently in the past year. According to the government, ISIL now controls around 14 per cent of Iraqi territory, down from 40 per cent in 2014.
However, as the “caliphate” it declared in Iraq and Syria two years ago unravels, ISIL has been reverting to its old tactics of bombings against civilians and commando raids.
The deadliest bombing on Monday was in the Shiite-dominated Shaab neighbourhood of Baghdad where a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a checkpoint next to a commercial area, killing eight civilians and three soldiers. Seven civilians and three policemen died when a suicide car bomber struck an outdoor market in Tarmiyah, a town about 50km north of Baghdad, while a motorcycle bomb at a market in Baghdad’s Shiite Sadr City district killed three people.
In Syria, clashes raged around the northern town of Marea as ISIL pressed an assault on moderate rebels. The ISIL onslaught has threatened tens of thousands of people, many of them already displaced from other areas, who have sought refuge in camps near the Turkish border.
Gerry Simpson, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, said 165,000 civilians were now stuck between ISIL fighters, Kurdish forces and the border.
“What more does the US, EU and UN need to call on Turkey to give these people refuge,” he asked.
In Aleppo city, 15 people including two children were killed in the rebel-controlled eastern neighbourhoods in heavy bombardment on Monday morning, the civil defence said.
* Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
Financial considerations before buying a property
Buyers should try to pay as much in cash as possible for a property, limiting the mortgage value to as little as they can afford. This means they not only pay less in interest but their monthly costs are also reduced. Ideally, the monthly mortgage payment should not exceed 20 per cent of the purchaser’s total household income, says Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching.
“If it’s a rental property, plan for the property to have periods when it does not have a tenant. Ensure you have enough cash set aside to pay the mortgage and other costs during these periods, ideally at least six months,” she says.
Also, shop around for the best mortgage interest rate. Understand the terms and conditions, especially what happens after any introductory periods, Ms Glynn adds.
Using a good mortgage broker is worth the investment to obtain the best rate available for a buyer’s needs and circumstances. A good mortgage broker will help the buyer understand the terms and conditions of the mortgage and make the purchasing process efficient and easier.
'Munich: The Edge of War'
Director: Christian Schwochow
Starring: George MacKay, Jannis Niewohner, Jeremy Irons
Rating: 3/5
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Men’s singles
Group A: Son Wan-ho (Kor), Lee Chong Wei (Mas), Ng Long Angus (HK), Chen Long (Chn)
Group B: Kidambi Srikanth (Ind), Shi Yugi (Chn), Chou Tien Chen (Tpe), Viktor Axelsen (Den)
Women’s Singles
Group A: Akane Yamaguchi (Jpn), Pusarla Sindhu (Ind), Sayaka Sato (Jpn), He Bingjiao (Chn)
Group B: Tai Tzu Ying (Tpe), Sung Hi-hyun (Kor), Ratchanok Intanon (Tha), Chen Yufei (Chn)
'My Son'
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5
