Popular Mobilization has been fighting alongside the army in
Falluja. Army units are also receiving air support from the U.S.- led
coalition.
The leader of the largest Iraqi
Shi'ite paramilitary group has criticised a lack of "precise planning"
in war operations to capture Falluja, the stronghold of Islamic State
near Baghdad.
Hadi al-Amiri's
comments, in an interview with Al-Sumaria TV on Sunday, make him the
second Shi'ite militia leader to voice dismay at efforts launched on May
23 by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to dislodge the ultra-hardline
Sunni militants from Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of the Iraqi
capital.
"Unfortunately there is an absence of
precise planning for the military operations," said Amiri, the leader of
the Badr Organisation, the largest component of the Popular
Mobilization, a coalition of Shi'ite militias that came together two
years ago to fight Islamic State with support from Iran.
On Friday, a spokesman for Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Jawad al-Talabawi, said the operations had come to a near standstill and asked Abadi to order the resumption of attacks.
Popular
Mobilization has been fighting alongside the army in Falluja. Army
units are also receiving air support from the U.S.- led coalition.
Abadi
said on June 1 the army had slowed its offensive over fears for the
safety of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the city with
limited access to water, food and healthcare.
But
Amiri accused the authorities of moving military assets away from
Falluja, to the frontlines of Mosul, Islamic State's de facto capital in
northern Iraq.
Several calls to the Iraqi
military spokesman since Sunday evening went unanswered. A government
spokesman declined to comment. Under the Iraqi Constitution, Abadi is
the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
"I
believe that sending a large part of armoured vehicles and assets to
Makhmour, under the pretext of Mosul’s battle, is a betrayal to the
battle of Falluja," Amiri said, referring to a region in northern Iraq.
"Today
the military planning and American pressure are aiming to have this
major operation conducted in parallel with the operation of liberating
Mosul.
"We say to them, 'Whether you helped us or
not, we will win the battle of Falluja,'" he added. A spokesman of the
U.S.-led coalition did not reply to an email seeking comment and could
not be reached by telephone. The coalition said two weeks ago it was
providing air support to Iraqi government forces only.
Abadi
ordered the offensive on Falluja after a series of bombings claimed by
Islamic State hit Shi'ite districts of Baghdad, causing the worst death
toll this year.
Falluja would be the third major city in Iraq recaptured by the government after former dictator Saddam Hussein's home town Tikrit and Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's vast western province of Anbar.
Abadi
has expressed hope that 2016 will be the year of "final victory" over
Islamic State, with the capture of Mosul, their de facto capital in
northern Iraq.
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