Fallujah: As Iraqi forces move through Fallujah, the city is yielding the grim remnants of more than two years of Daesh rule. Beheaded and decaying bodies. Clumps of facial hair from terrorists who shaved their beards to blend in with fleeing civilians. A prison where detainees were held in cages suitable for a medium-sized dog.
The forces have found books on Wahhabism, the extreme version of Islam from which the Daesh draws inspiration, and on Saddam Hussain, whose rule by fear and secrecy the group has replicated.
Yet even as the picture of what life was like inside Fallujah under the Daesh is becoming clearer, a visit over the weekend to areas of the city taken by pro-government forces made clear that there is still heavy fighting in the city.
Days after Iraqi forces raised the national flag over the main government compound and declared victory, the battle has moved to western neighbourhoods, where some Daesh fighters, many of them foreigners, remain, officials said.
About a third of the city has been cleared of insurgents, said Col. Christopher C. Garver, a US military spokesman in Baghdad. Still, US officials believe the city will eventually fall fully into government hands.
The battle has not yet played out as many feared it would: as a vicious, house-to-house fight like the one US Marines faced in 2004.
“[Daesh] did not fight seriously this time because the big leaders left their fighters on their own,” said Col. Mohammad Al Jumaili, a commander of a government-allied Sunni militia in Al Anbar province. He said that many of the local Daesh fighters resisted at first, but began escaping with their families once it became clear that the loose, pro-government alliance of soldiers, policemen, Shiite militiamen and Sunni fighters was winning.
He continued: “In 2004, many people of Fallujah had resisted the American troops because they viewed the US as invaders and that it was an Islamic obligation to fight them. This time the people realised there is a difference, that there is no purpose to fight your own people.”
Commanders said that the Daesh built up its defences on the city’s perimeter, and that once Iraqi forces punched through, they were able to move easily on the city centre as many Daesh fighters fled.
“This is the Nazal area, the most difficult area for the Americans in the first war,” said Lt. Gen. Abdul Wahab Al Saadi, the commander of the Iraqi counterterrorism forces that have taken the lead in the battle. He was surrounded by rubble, with the sounds of explosions and gunfire ringing from the distance.
Al Saadi moved through the streets carrying a tablet computer that showed maps of the battlefield, and with a radio in which he could call in coordinates for artillery and air strikes.
At one point, he stopped to talk to his soldiers — some holed up in houses, others on rooftops along with snipers — and to take pictures. Suddenly, one of his men was shot in the leg, the source of the bullet unknown. Everyone ducked for cover, and the soldier, who was not seriously wounded, was hustled off in a Humvee, blood streaming from his calf.
There is so much destruction that some parts of the city look as if they are out of a science fiction film. Dust being whipped up adds to the apocalyptic feel. But other sections are relatively intact.
In fact, the level of destruction is far less than in Ramadi, the capital of Al Anbar province, which was liberated at the beginning of the year. There, Daesh destroyed many buildings as it left. Iraqi bombardment and air strikes from the US-led coalition flattened more buildings in Ramadi, where there were fewer civilians left to worry about striking.
The battle for Fallujah has once again highlighted Iraq’s place as an arena for competition over influence between the United States and Iran.
In one area of the city are Al Saadi’s men, who have worked closely with the United States for more than a decade and have strong reputations as fighters. In another area are federal police units, which have proved instrumental in the push on the city centre.
But there are also Shiite fighters from the Badr Organisation, a militia backed by Iran. The Badr fighters had promised not to enter the city but have done so wearing federal police uniforms, according to witnesses and a group of Sunni lawmakers who publicly criticised the deception.
The militiamen’s presence inside Fallujah has also raised concerns within the US military.
“We’ve seen rumours” about their wearing police uniforms, Garver said. “It concerns us because we don’t support those groups. We support the federal police. If we don’t know who people are on the battlefield, that may impact how we provide our support.”
This has allowed the appearance that only government forces are fighting in Fallujah, which the United States has insisted upon — on the basis that Shiite militiamen in the Sunni city of Fallujah would heighten sectarian tensions.
Here, too, there is cause for concern even if the worst fears have not come to pass. No widespread sectarian bloodbath has broken out. But the militias, who took a leading role weeks ago as the forces began clearing the outskirts of the city, have been accused in cases of torture and extrajudicial killings, and the government has made some arrests.
With each turn in the Fallujah fight, and in the discussion of how Daesh could be uprooted from the city of Mosul and its remaining Iraqi strongholds, the broader question of Iraq’s ability to reconcile as a multisectarian state hovers over everything.
Even if the Daesh is eventually pushed from all of its territory in Iraq, it is likely to endure as a Sunni guerrilla insurgency, like Al Qaida in Iraq before it. But the most important question is whether its ideology will remain appealing to Iraqi Sunnis, many of whom saw the Daesh as a protector against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.
Ryan Crocker, a former US ambassador to Iraq, warned in an online column recently that victory in Fallujah, instead of bringing a lasting peace, is likely to worsen Iraq’s sectarian divide because of the dominant role here of Iran, the region’s pre-eminent Shiite power, which has stood in the way of political outreach to Sunnis.
“The Iranians and their proxies dominate the political arena as they do the battle space, and there will be no outreach to Sunnis,” he wrote.
Many Fallujah residents, who fled to the desert in the thousands recently, adding to a worsening humanitarian crisis, said life under Daesh rule was fine for them until the government siege began in December.
“In the beginning we had no problem,” said Eman Mustafa, in her late 20s, who was interviewed at a camp for the displaced. “They treated us well.”
Mustafa used to work in Fallujah’s main hospital, helping deliver babies, and she spoke in classical Arabic, which is not commonly heard in Iraq. She said she learnt to talk that way from foreign women who had come to live in Fallujah under the Daesh
“To be honest, I just care about security, whether it is with Daesh or with Baghdad,” she said.
Many others, though, spoke of the terror of living under Daesh, of being shot at as they tried to escape in recent weeks, and of having little to eat as militants hoarded food for themselves while the siege unfolded.
In the camps, there is a notable lack of men among the families taking shelter. Many have been held by the government on suspicion of having some ties to the Daesh.
One man who made it through detention and was back with his family said he was treated well and was happy to name all the Daesh members he knew — many of them his neighbours.
The man, Abdul Hamid Abdella, 47, believes there should be no mercy for anyone who joined the group: “Believe me, if it was my own son, I would slaughter him.”
