BAGHDAD // Iraqi security forces are preparing a “major attack” to retake the city of Fallujah from Al Qaeda-linked militants, a senior government official said on Sunday.
“Iraqi forces are preparing for a major attack in Fallujah,” the official told AFP.
Special forces had already conducted operations in the city, and the army was deployed around it to allow residents to leave, the official said.
Then security forces would launch “the attack to crush the terrorists”.
Parts of Ramadi and Fallujah, west of Baghdad, have been held by militants for days, hearkening back to the years after the 2003 US-led invasion when both cities were insurgent strongholds.
On Saturday, a senior security official in Anbar province said Fallujah was under the control of Al Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The United States secretary of state, John Kerry, said on Sunday that Washington was ready to help Baghdad in its battle against the militants, but added that it was “their fight”.
Mr Kerry said the US was “very, very concerned” about the resurgence of ISIL but was not contemplating any return of US ground troops, after their withdrawal in December 2011.
* Agence France-Presse
