Fight against ISIL: Fallujah post liberation

World Today

Fight against ISIL: Fallujah post liberation

About an hour west of Baghdad, Fallujah is another Iraqi city and now liberated. But the first to fall to ISIL nearly three years ago.

CCTV America’s Stephanie Freid reports.

Muhaned, his wife and five children returned home in October after two years in exile.

Like everyone else in Fallujah, they have no electricity or running water and there’s no trash collection. Out of work and out of money, Muhaned came back because he had no choice.

It’s been nearly four months since the Iraqi Army drove ISIL out of Fallujah. The city remains in ruins. There’s no running water or electricity.

Another major problem is IED’s and unexploded ordnances have not been cleared out of residential areas. Muhaned told us that his cousin accidentally stepped on an explosive device and was killed last week.

Security forces guarding against ISIL infiltrators have been accused of mistreating Iraqis suspected of connections with the terror group. That’s keeping some displaced people from returning home.

Iraqi police and military agree they need to cooperate, but to date no one has been appointed to oversee city’s districts. The local police commander says he has no budget.

Four months after Fallujah’s liberation the city still faces a threat from ISIL. So even if the government and its militia allies recapture Mosul, the question is whether that city will ever be safe again.