1000s Flee Fallujah Using Route Secured by Iraqi Army
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Iraqi army said it had secured the first safe exit route for civilians to leave Daesh (also known as ISIL and ISIS) besieged stronghold Fallujah, and a Norwegian aid group said thousands of people had already used it to flee in the first day it was open.
The new exit route, known as Al-Salam Junction, was secured Saturday, southwest of Fallujah, Joint Operation Command Spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool told Reuters.
“There were exit routes previously, but this is the first to be completely secured and it’s relatively safe,” Rasool said.
About 4,000 people had fled the city over the past 24 hours through the Al-Salam Junction, said Karl Schembri, a spokesman in Iraq for the Norwegian Refugee Council, which has been assisting people who escape the city. “We expect thousands more to be able to leave in the coming days,” he said.
The Al-Salam Junction route was secured after troops dislodged terrorists from districts located on the western bank of the Euphrates river, opposite Fallujah’s city center on the east bank, Rasool said. He did not give a number for the civilians who were able to flee so far using it.
More than 20,000 people have managed to flee the city and its surrounding area since the Iraqi army began the offensive on May 23, the United Nations said on June 8.
Led by the elite counter-terrorism service (CTS), Iraq’s best trained and most seasoned fighting unit, the Iraqi army entered Fallujah on May 30 in a major offensive that began a week earlier.
In January 2014, Fallujah, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, became the first Iraqi city to fall under the control of the terrorists, six months before they declared a caliphate over territory seized in Iraq and Syria.
