Al Qaida takes city in Iraq, faces war in Syria

Iraq says it has lost Fallujah to Isil, while Syrian rebels form alliance for ‘revolution’ against it

Gulf News Report
January 4, 2014

Dubai: Iraq has lost Fallujah to Al Qaida-linked fighters, a senior security official said on Saturday, putting militants who repeatedly battled American forces for the city back in control.

“Fallujah is under the control of Isil,” a senior security official in Anbar province said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

“It has turned into a ghost town,” a resident said. “Everything is closed, and streets are empty except for gunmen, and gunfire is frequently heard.”

The Iraqi army shelled Fallujah with mortar bombs overnight to try to wrest back control, killing at least eight people, tribal leaders and officials said on Saturday.

Isil has been tightening its grip in the province, near the Syrian border, in recent months in a bid to create an Islamic state across the Iraqi-Syrian borders.

In Ramadi, the other main city in Anbar, tribesmen and the army have worked together to counter Al Qaida militants seeking to take control.

But in Fallujah, Isil’s task has been made easier by the cooperation of tribesmen, who have joined forces with it against the government.

Officials and witnesses in Fallujah said the northern and eastern parts of the city were under the control of tribesmen and militants after residents fled the neighbourhoods to take refuge from the army shelling.

Isil seized large areas in Fallujah and Ramadi in Anbar province after government forces cleared out an anti-government Sunni protest camp on Monday in Ramadi. They took over Fallujah one day after Iraqi security forces and allied Sunni Sahwa fighters killed Abu Abdul Rahman Al Baghdadi, a key leader of Isil.

In Syria, meanwhile, Isil was set to face a major rebellion campaign from those who had previously tasked themselves with fighting the regime of Bashar Al Assad.

A newly-formed Syrian rebel alliance declared war on the group, calling it a “new revolution”, which the opposition Syrian National Coalition said it wholeheartedly supported.

“We, the Army of the Mujahideen, pledge to defend ourselves and our honour, wealth and lands, and to fight Isil, which has violated the rule of God, until it announces its dissolution,” said the new alliance of eight groups, in a statement published on Facebook on Friday.

The alliance demanded that Isil fighters either join the ranks of other rebel groups “or hand over their weapons and leave Syria.”

The rebels killed at least 36 Isil militants in Idlib and captured more than 100, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Saturday.

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