Iraqi forces call on residents of IS-held Fallujah to prepare for withdrawal

Iraqi security forces on Sunday told the residents remaining in the Islamic State (IS)-held city of Fallujah to prepare to leave, as a sign an imminent offensive, a military statement said.

"We ask all the citizens who are still in Fallujah to be prepared to leave the city through safe corridors that will be declared later," the statement said.

It also called on the citizens of Fallujah to raise white flags on their places, and to stay away from the headquarters and positions of IS militants, which will be targeted by the aircraft.

During the past few months, the security forces and allied Shiite and Sunni paramilitary units, known as Hashd Shaabi, have been carrying out operations around the IS stronghold of Fallujah to tighten the troops' grip on the besieged city and the nearby small town of Garma in order to clear them from IS militants.

The Sunni Arab city of Fallujah, some 50 km west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, has been under IS control since early 2014.

There is no reliable information about how many civilians remained in the city, which originally was home to about 300,000 people. But non-official figures said several thousands of families have been stuck inside with acute shortage of food and medicine.

Previously, the Iraqi security forces announced safe corridors to facilitate withdrawal of civilians from the besieged city, which has been continuously under shelling and airstrikes by the security forces, but the extremist militants prevent the people from leaving their residents in the city to use them as human shields.

Government troops and allied militias have been fighting for months to retake control of key cities and towns in Anbar, Iraq's largest province, from IS militants, who previously seized most of Anbar and tried to advance toward Baghdad. Endit