Iran-Led Push to Retake Falluja From ISIS Worries U.S. - The New York Times - 0 views
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American commandos are on the front lines in Syria in a new push toward the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Raqqa
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: Iran, not the United States, has become the face of an operation to retake the jihadist stronghold of Falluja from the militant group.
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another example of how United States and Iranian interests seemingly converge and clash at the same time in Iraq.
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believed that Iran’s role, which relies on militias accused of sectarian abuses, can make matters worse by angering Sunnis and making them more sympathetic to the militants.
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in Iraq, where the United States backs the central government, and trains and advises the Iraqi Army, it has been limited by the role of Iran, the most powerful foreign power inside the country.
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“There are no patriots, no real religious people in Falluja. It’s our chance to clear Iraq by eradicating the cancer of Falluja.”
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The United States has thousands of military personnel in Iraq and has trained Iraqi security forces for nearly two years, yet is largely on the sidelines in the battle to retake Falluja.
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A Shiite militia leader, in a widely circulated video, is seen rallying his men with a message of revenge against the people of Falluja, whom many Iraqi Shiites believe to be Islamic State sympathizers rather than innocent civilians.
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“The Prophet Muhammad used to tell his companions before sending them to fight, to go forward in the name of Allah, with Allah and upon the religion of the messenger of Allah. Do not kill the elderly, children or women, do not steal the spoils but collect them, and do not cut down trees unless you are forced to do so.”
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“saving an innocent human being from dangers around him is much more important than targeting and eliminating the enemy.”
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If the militias do hold back as promised, then the United States is likely to step up the tempo of the air campaign
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The American military role in Iraq has been limited mostly to airstrikes and the training of the army.
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In northern Iraq, where they work with Kurdish forces, two American Special Forces soldiers have been killed.
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The United States military estimates that between 500 and 1,000 Islamic State fighters remain in Falluja,
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A big question going into the battle is whether the Islamic State fighters will dig in and fight or, as they have in some other battles, throw away their weapons and try to melt into the civilian population.
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Led by the Marines, its forces fought two bloody battles for Falluja in 2004. Mindful of this past, American officials would have preferred that the Iraqis left Falluja alone for now and focused on the Islamic State stronghold of Mosul in the north.
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The American military’s assault on Falluja in April of 2004 was in retaliation for an episode that became an early symbol of a war spiraling out of control, the image of it as indelible as it was gruesome: the bodies of four Blackwater contractors dangling from the ironwork of a bridge.