Days after the Iraqi government said it won back the central portion of the city of Fallujah from the self-proclaimed Islamic State,the U.
S.-led coalition said only one-third of the city had been cleared. According the U.
S., there are contested areas and on-going clashes between Iraqi forces and ISIS fighters in some of the city's densest neighborhoods.
U.
S. Defense Department Spokesman Matthew Allen said the battle will continue to be a difficult fight and that the U.
S. "will continue to support the government of Iraq in eliminating ISIL from Fallujah." The news of progress in Fallujah comes on the heels of the recapture of Ramadi in the Sunni dominated province of Anbar. If there is success in Fallujah, or the expectation is that the ISIS stronghold in the city of Mosul will be next. Ali Khedery is a former American senior adviser to U.
S. Central Command in Iraq,who also served as a special assistant to five U.
S. ambassadors. He points out that Fallujah has been liberated before and warns that these types of short-term victories add to a long list of missteps in Washington, and continues to fuel long-term instability in the Middle East. Khedery is currently the chairman and CEO of Dragoman Partners.
Source: wnyc.org