Iraqi forces reach southern edge of Fallujah in fierce fight with ISIS

TheIraqi army stormed to the southern edge ofFallujahunder U.S.air support on Monday and captured a police station inside thecity limits, launching a direct assault to retake one of themain strongholds of Islamic State militants.

A Reuters TV crew about a 1.5 kilometresfrom thecity's edge said explosions and gunfire were ripping throughNaimiya, a largely rural district ofFallujahonitssouthernoutskirts.

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An elite military unit, the Rapid Response Team, seized thedistrict's police station at midday, state TV reported.

The unit advanced another mile northward, stopping about 500metres from theal-Shuhadadistrict, the southeasternpart of city's main built-up area, army officers said.

The battle forFallujahis shaping up to be one of thebiggest ever fought against ISIS, in the city whereU.S. forces waged the heaviest battles of their 2003-2011occupation against the Sunni Muslim militant group's precursors.

Fallujahis ISIS's closest bastion to Baghdad, andbelieved to be the base from which the group has plotted anescalating campaign of suicide bombings against Shiacivilians and government targets inside the capital.

Brig.Haideral-Obeidi, with the elitecounterterrorismtroops, says the push started at dawn on Monday.He said the clashes are "fierce," with ISIS extremists deploying snipers and releasing a volley of mortar rounds.

Six-monthsiege

As government forces pressed their onslaught, suicidebombers driving a car and a motorcycle blew themselves up in thecapital. Along with another bomb planted in a car, they killed at least 24 people and injured more than 50 in three districtsof Baghdad, police and medical sources said.

Separately, Kurdish security forces announced advancesagainst ISIS in northern Iraq, capturing villages frommilitants outsideMosul, the biggest city under militantcontrol.

The Iraqi army launched its operation to recoverFallujahaweek ago, first by tightening a six-month-old siege around thecity 50 kilometreswest of Baghdad.

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Fallujah, in the heartland of Sunni Muslim tribes who resentthe Shia-led government in Baghdad, was the first Iraqi cityto fall to ISIS in January 2014. Months later, thegroup overran wide areas of the north and west of Iraq,declaring a caliphate including parts of neighbouring Syria.

On Monday, army units were "steadily advancing" toFallujah'ssouthern outskirts under air cover from a U.S.-led coalitionhelping to fight against the militants, according to a militarystatement read out on state TV.

A Shia militia coalition known as Popular Mobilization,orHashidShaabi, was seeking to consolidate the siege bydislodging militants fromSaqlawiya, a village just to the northofFallujah.

The militias, who took the lead in assaults against ISISin other parts of Iraq last year, have pledged not to takepart in the assault on the mainly Sunni Muslim city itself toavoid aggravating sectarian strife.

Between 500 and 700 militants are inFallujah, according to aU.S. military estimate. The U.S.-led coalition conducted threeair strikes nearFallujahover the past 24 hours, destroyingfighting positions, vehicles, tunnel entrances and denying themilitants access to terrain, it said in a statement.

ISIS stronghold

Fallujahhas been a bastion of the Sunni insurgency thatfought both the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Shia-ledBaghdad government that took over after the fall of dictatorSaddamHussein, a Sunni, in 2003.

American troops suffered some of their worst losses of thewar in two battles in 2004 to wrestFallujahback from al-Qaedain Iraq, the insurgent group now known as ISIS.

The latest offensive is causing alarm among internationalaid organisations over the humanitarian situation in the city,where more than 50,000 civilians remain trapped with limitedaccess to water, food and health care.

Fallujahis the second-largest Iraqi city still under controlof the militants, afterMosul, their de facto capital in thenorth that had a pre-war population of about twomillion.

It would be the third major city in Iraq recaptured by thegovernment afterSaddam'shome townTikritandRamadi, thecapital of Iraq's vast westernAnbarprovince.

Fallujahis also inAnbar, located betweenRamadiandBaghdad, and capturing it would give the government control ofthe major population centres of the Euphrates River valley westof the capital for the first time in more than two years.

Peshmergaretakevillages

On the northern front, the security forces of the autonomousKurdish region launched an attack on Sunday to oustIslamistmilitants from villages about 20 kilometres east ofMosulsoas to increase the pressure on ISIS and pave the wayfor storming that city.

The Kurdish forces, known aspeshmerga, have retaken sixvillages in total since attacking ISIS positions onSunday with the support of the U.S.-led coalition, the KurdistanRegion Security Council said on Monday. That represents most ofthe targets of their latest advance.

Prime MinisterHaideral-Abadihopes to recaptureMosullater this year to deal a decisive defeat to ISIS.

Abadiannounced the onslaught onFallujahon May 22 after aspate of bombings that killed more than 150 people in one weekin Baghdad, the worst death toll so far this year. The worseningsecurity in the capital has added to political pressure onAbadi, struggling to maintain the support of a Shia coalitionamid popular protests against an entrenched political class.

Monday's bombings targeted two densely populated Shia districts,ShaabandSadrCity, and a government building in onepredominantly Sunni suburb,Tarmiya, north of Baghdad.

A car bomb inShaabkilled 12 people and injured more than20, while inTarmiyaeight were killed and 21 injured by asuicide bomber who pulled up in a car outside a governmentbuilding guarded by police. InSadrCity, a suicide bomber on amotorcycle killed three people and injured nine.

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The battle ofFallujahis helpingAbadirefocus the attentionof Iraq's unruly political parties on the war against ISIS, so as to defuse popular unrest prompted by delays in aplanned reshuffle of the cabinet to help root out corruption.

In a speech to parliament on Sunday, he called on politicalgroups to "put on hold their differences until the militaryoperations are over."

Washington says ISIS'sterritory is steadily beingrolled back both in Iraq and in Syria, where it has lost groundto U.S.-backed, mainly Kurdish insurgents in the north and tothe Russian-backed forces of PresidentBasharal-Assad.