Iraq Says They Took Back Falluja And Mean It This Time

Iraq’s Lieutenant General Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi said that the country successfully recovered the city of Falluja from ISIS, and all it took was a month-long operation that drove out 80,000 people and destroyed over a third of the city. Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi previously claimed the city had been captured but those claims turned out to be premature. Maybe hold off on the party hats: while Falluja’s recapturing is a strategic milestone against ISIS, the mission did set off a humanitarian disaster. It is uncertain how and when the tens of thousands of displaced Falluja residents will be able to return.