DHAKA: Iraqi security forces are preparing a ‘major attack’ to retake the city of Fallujah from al-Qaida-linked militants, a senior government official said on Sunday.

‘Iraqi forces are preparing for a major attack in Fallujah,’ the official told media, reports The Times of India.

Special forces had already conducted operations in the city, and the army was deployed around it to allow residents to leave, the official said.

Then security forces would launch ‘the attack to crush the terrorists’.

Parts of Ramadi and Fallujah, west of Baghdad, have been held by militants for days, harkening back to the years after the 2003 US-led invasion when both cities were insurgent strongholds.

On Saturday, a senior security official in Anbar province said Fallujah was under the control of al-Qaida-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

BDST: 1919 HRS, JAN 05, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor