Iraq's elite counterterrorism forces on Wednesday pushed deeper into Islamic State-held Fallujah, more than two weeks after the operation to retake the city from the militant group started, a senior military official said. After securing the southern edge of the city on Sunday, Iraqi special forces entered the neighborhood of Shuhada on Wednesday morning, according to Maj Gen Hadi Zayid Kassar, deputy commander of the counterterrorism forces in Fallujah. Kassar told The Associated Press that artillery and rocket fire cleared the way for a single column of black Humvees to move into the low rise buildings of Shuhada, a southern neighborhood in Fallujah. Fallujah is one of the last IS strongholds in Iraq. The Sunni militant group has controlled the city, located about 65 kilometers (40 miles) west of Baghdad, for more than two years. Iraqi forces have already faced stiff resistance in the fight for Fallujah. Extensive use of tunnels, well trained snipers and roadside bombs placed by the militant group slowed the initial push into the city proper. After a blitz across the country in the summer of 2014, territory has slowly been clawed back from IS militants. The Islamic State still controls patches of territory in Iraq's north and west, as well as the country's second largest city of Mosul. The operation to retake Fallujah is expected to be one of the most difficult yet — the city is symbolically important to the militant group and has long been a bastion of support for anti-government militants since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/222525.aspx
