Yahoo Finance Iraq Forces 'Break Into' IS-Held Fallujah
Iraqi forces have entered Fallujah under coalition air cover as a new phase begins to win back one of Islamic State's key cities.
Troops backed by artillery and tanks went into the city from three directions, commanders told the AFP news agency.
"Iraqi forces entered Fallujah under air cover from the international coalition, the Iraqi air force and army aviation and supported by artillery and tanks," Lieutenant General Abdelwahab al Saadi told AFP.
"Counter-terrorism service (CTS) forces, the Anbar police and the Iraqi army, at around 4am (0100 GMT), started moving into Fallujah from three directions."
The commander said troops were meeting "resistance" from IS fighters.
CTS spokesman Sabah al Noman said forces had managed to "break into" Fallujah.
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Despite many people having fled the city, located about 40 miles west of Baghdad, 50,000 are still believed to be trapped there.
Some 500 to 1,000 IS troops are estimated to be in control, with reported incidents of them using civilians as human shields and killing people attempting to flee.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi used a televised speech to parliament on Sunday to urge residents to either stay inside or leave the embattled city.
The army, backed by an Iranian-backed Shia militia, began the push to take back Fallujah on 23 May by tightening its grip on the surrounding rural area.
Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to be captured by Islamic State. Along with Mosul, it is one of two major urban areas held by IS.
The terror group took control in January 2014, six months before announcing a self-proclaimed caliphate in areas of Iraq and Syria.
The city had a population of more than 320,000 in 2010 but this has dwindled, with the remaining residents hemmed in by the fighting, and enduring food and medicine shortages.
The Norwegian Refugee Council has said it is helping around 3,000 people who have escaped Fallujah over the last week, describing them as "totally exhausted, afraid and hungry".
But aid workers fear they could be overwhelmed as forces push further into the city.
"Our resources in the camps are now very strained and with many more expected to flee we might not be able to provide enough drinking water for everyone," said Nasr Muflahi, the Norwegian Refugee Council's Iraq director.
"We expect bigger waves of displacement the fiercer the fighting gets."
