Iraq forces hit Fallujah as attacks kill seven

Attacks in Iraq killed seven people today and the army said it had killed militants in a combined air and artillery attack on the militant-held city of Fallujah.
Iraq has just concluded its deadliest month in nearly six years, with more than 1,000 people killed in January, as it grapples with a surge in bloodshed and a deadly stand-off with anti-government fighters on Baghdad's doorstep.
Aerial bombardment and artillery fire on a neighbourhood in northern Fallujah, a rare major operation in the city, has killed 15 militants, the defence ministry announced today, but without saying when the assault took place.

The army has largely stayed out of Fallujah, just a short drive from Baghdad, fearing any major incursion could lead to a bloody and protracted conflict with massive civilian casualties and property damage.
American battles in the city, a bastion of militants following the 2003 US-led invasion, were among their bloodiest since the Vietnam War.
Fallujah is in Anbar province, a mostly Sunni desert region west of Baghdad that shares a border with Syria.

Security forces have been locked in a deadly stand-off in Anbar with militants, including those affiliated with the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

For weeks, anti-government forces have held parts of provincial capital Ramadi and all of nearby Fallujah, the first time they have exercised such open control in cities since the peak of violence that followed the invasion nearly 11 years ago.
ISIL has been involved in the fighting, as have other militant groups and anti-government elements, while the police and army have recruited their own tribal allies.
The stand-off has prompted more than 140,000 people to flee their homes, the UN refugee agency said, describing it as the worst displacement in Iraq since the peak of a 2006-2008 sectarian conflict.
Diplomats and analysts say the authorities must do more to tackle grievances cited by Sunnis, who claim the government and security forces unfairly target their community, but officials have trumpeted security operations.

"Security operations need to go hand-in-hand with inclusive policies, based on the respect for human rights, the rule of law, social development," UN special envoy Nickolay Mladenov said in a statement today.
Elsewhere, a bombing at a wholesale vegetable market in south Baghdad killed two people, while a vehicle rigged with explosives was detonated in the sprawling Sadr City neighbourhood, killing one.