Fallujah Falls to Al Qaeda-Linked Fighters

The Iraqi city
of Fallujah, the site of some of the
fiercest fighting between American forces and insurgents during
the U.S.-led War in Iraq, has fallen to Al Qaeda-linked fighters
from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), who had been
fighting Iraqi government forces.

From the
BBC:

The Iraq government has lost control of the strategic city of
Fallujah, west of Baghdad, say officials and witnesses.

Al-Qaeda-linked militants now control the south of the city, a
security source told the BBC. An Iraqi reporter there says
tribesmen allied with al-Qaeda hold the rest of Fallujah.

Fighting there erupted after troops broke up a protest camp by
Sunni Arabs in the city of Ramadi on Monday.

They have been accusing the Shia-led government of marginalising
the Sunnis.

Today, it was reported that Iraqi forces
launched air strikes against Al Qaeda-linked fighters in
Ramadi, which like Fallujah is in Iraq’s western Anbar
province.

Secretary of State John Kerry
has said that the U.S. will support the Iraqi government in their
fight agains the Al Qaeda-linked fighters, but will not be sending
troops.

From the
Associated Press:

JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday
that America would support Iraq in its fight against
al-Qaeda-linked militants who have overrun two cities in the
country’s west, but said the U.S. wouldn’t send troops, calling the
battle “their fight.”

Kerry made the comments as he left Jerusalem for Jordan and
Saudi Arabia to discuss his effort to broker peace between Israel
and the Palestinians. He’s had three days of lengthy meetings with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu. Kerry said some progress was made in what he
described as ” very serious, very intensive conversations,” but key
hurdles are yet to be overcome.

Iraqi forces are reportedly preparing for a
“major attack” on Fallujah. 

Over ten years after the launch of the the War on Terror, which
has cost
trillions of dollars and resulted in the deaths of
hundreds
of
thousands of people, Al Qaeda-linked fighters are now in
control of a city less than 50 miles from Iraq’s capital.

Read Reason.com forum on the tenth anniversary of the War in
Iraq
here.

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