Wednesday, Jan 08, 2014
FALLUJAH (AFP)--Masked gunmen remained in control of Iraq's Fallujah Wednesday even as traffic police returned to the city's streets after a jihadist group urged Sunnis to keep fighting the Shiite-led government.
Fallujah and parts of the Anbar provincial capital Ramadi farther west have been outside government hands for days--the first time militants have exercised such open control in major cities since the height of the insurgency that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Earlier on Wednesday, two areas of Fallujah saw brief clashes and shelling, witnesses said, but it was not immediately clear who was involved in the fighting.
The traffic police, whose sole responsibility is directing vehicles and controlling intersections, were back on the streets in several parts of central Fallujah, an AFP journalist reported.
They were apparently back on duty with the blessing of the gunmen, whose allegiance was not immediately clear.
The gunmen were deployed in areas around the edge of the city, at the entrances of neighborhoods, and on bridges--including one from which the bodies of American contractors were infamously hung in 2004, prompting the first of two U.S. assaults on Fallujah that year.
Some shops in the city reopened, and light traffic returned to the streets. But the city still faces the threat of an assault by soldiers deployed nearby.
The al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has been active in Fallujah, but so have anti-government tribes.
The security forces have meanwhile recruited their own tribal allies in the fighting that has raged in Anbar province for more than a week and killed over 250 people.
Near the provincial capital Ramadi, soldiers backed by helicopters battled gunmen in the Khaldiyah area, a police captain said.
The fighting came after the release late Tuesday of an audio recording purportedly from ISIL spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani urging Sunnis to continue fighting the Shiite-led government.
"Oh Sunni people, you were forced to take up the weapon," Adnani said.
"Do not lay the weapon down, because if you put it down this time, the (Shiites) will enslave you and you will not rise again."
Defense ministry spokesman Staff Lieutenant General Mohammed al-Askari said Tuesday that soldiers deployed near Fallujah would hold off on assaulting the city for now for fear of civilian casualties.
Attacking the Sunni-majority city would also be extremely sensitive politically, as it would inflame already high tensions between the Sunni Arab minority and the government.
And it would be a major test for Iraqi security forces, which have yet to undertake such a major operation without the backing of U.S. troops, who withdrew in December 2011.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
08-01-14 1155GMT
