DHAKA: Al Qaeda and other insurgent groups have tightened their grip on Fallujah, defying the Shia-led Iraqi government’s efforts to persuade local tribesmen to expel them from the Sunni Muslim city.

Falluja residents and officials say, reports TDS.

Despite an army siege, fighters and weapons have been flowing into the city, where US troops fought some of their fiercest battles during their 2003-11 occupation of Iraq.

In an embarrassing setback for a state that has around a million men under arms, the al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and its tribal allies overran Falluja and parts of the nearby city Ramadi on January 1.

Iraq prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, seeking a third term in a parliamentary election in April, deployed troops and tanks around the city of 300,000 and funneled weapons to anti-Qaeda tribesmen, but has ruled out a full-scale military assault.

‘Our sources in Fallujah indicate that militant numbers have increased to more than 400 in the last few days and that more anti-aircraft guns were received,’ said a senior local official who declined to be named.

BDST: 1701 HRS, JAN 18, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor