Iraq News
Security

Tribes and police take over Fallujah's security

By Khalid al-Taie

Iraqi forces from the Fallujah Shield Brigade are part of the joint security effort to protect the city following the defeat of the 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant'. [Photo courtesy of the Fallujah Shield Brigade Facebook page]

Iraqi forces from the Fallujah Shield Brigade are part of the joint security effort to protect the city following the defeat of the 'Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant'. [Photo courtesy of the Fallujah Shield Brigade Facebook page]

Tribal fighters and local police have started managing security in the Anbar city of Fallujah, which was liberated at the end of June from the "Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" (ISIL).

Units of tribesmen and Anbar police have begun to take over responsibilities from the army and federal police, Anbar provincial council security committee member Rajeh Barakat al-Aifan told Mawtani last week.

"Four regiments from the Fallujah Shield Brigade, composed of tribal fighters, as well as local emergency forces belonging to the Anbar police command, have started entering the city of Fallujah to take over security there and hold the territory," he said.

Their primary mission will be to prevent ISIL fighters from returning to the city and to support the various efforts to restore security and stability, al-Aifan said.

The first step in the plan to protect Fallujah will be to reorganise and prepare all headquarters and main security positions in the city and to deploy police and tribal forces across all neighbourhoods and entrances, he said.

This is designed to "prevent terrorist infiltration and to protect the returning population's lives and property", he added.

Preparing for returning residents

Procedures for the return of displaced residents also have been initiated, al-Aifan said, with the first groups slated to return over the next month.

"We expect that some 2,000 families will return in the first batch, and every new group will return after its security is ensured, to be followed by another group and so forth, until all displaced families have returned," he said.

Service departments managing water, sewer and electricity last week started assessing the damage to Fallujah's infrastructure and "initiated reconstruction plans before residents return", he added.

"Also, the Defence Ministry's engineering effort is still continuing to defuse and remove the remaining improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and mines planted in the city by the terrorists," he said.

"Fallujah is secured at all entrances and surrounded by military forces on all sides, and ISIL's elements cannot infiltrate it," Fallujah mayor Issa al-Issawi told Mawtani.

"Our main concern now is to restore basic services such as water and electricity and to reconstruct hospitals and various service departments, since the return of displaced residents depends on restoring all those services and providing a safe environment to those returning," he said.

Clearing explosives from the city

"The military forces in Fallujah are currently working to complete the clearing of the city's neighbourhoods of IEDs," al-Issawi said. "Thousands of IEDs have so far been removed from the al-Askari, al-Shuhadaa, al-Dubat and al-Jughaifi neighbourhoods, and efforts in this regard are continuing."

Once the entire city is cleared of explosives, the second phase of the deployment plan will begin and "our units will stand shoulder to shoulder with the local police throughout Fallujah's neighbourhoods", said Brig. Gen. Majid Jayad Nayef, commander of the Fallujah Shield Brigade.

"The military forces are making great efforts to remove thousands of IEDs from streets and homes," he told Mawtani.

On Thursday (July 14th), he said, a booby-trapped house was defused in the city centre that "contained 163 IEDs and 40 bags of high-impact C-4 explosives, all connected with each other in a complex network".

"The Fallujah Shield Brigade's first regiment has embarked on the mission to hold the territory and is now deployed in the first stage in the area of al-Nuaimiya in southern Fallujah," he said.

"We are now keeping security in al-Nuaimiya sector in co-ordination and co-operation with the military forces of the 1st Rapid Intervention Division's 2nd Brigade, which is in charge of that sector," Nayef said.

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