Forces fighting for Iraq's Fallujah

 Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has announced the start of a long-awaited operation to retake Fallujah, one of two cities in the country still held by the Islamic State group.

Here is a list of forces that will be involved in the battle:

ISLAMIC STATE GROUP: A fanatical jihadist organisation that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, and also holds swathes of neighbouring Syria. IS, which has carried out a litany of abuses including beheadings and other extrajudicial killings, enslavement and rape, has been on the defensive in Iraq since last year, suffering a string of losses.

COUNTER-TERRORISM SERVICE: Iraq's best-trained and most effective forces, which have served as shock troops in battles against IS across the country. But their skills have put them in high demand, and nearly two years of combat against the jihadists have strained the elite force.

ARMY: While it performed poorly in the early days of IS's June 2014 offensive, the army has since improved with the help of training from the US-led anti-IS coalition. But some of its troops still lack experience, and the counter-terrorism service has previously had to step in to forward stalled army operations.

POLICE: Includes both the paramilitary federal police, many members of which are drawn from Iraq's Shiite Muslim south, and local police forces from the Sunni Anbar province, where Fallujah is located. The federal police were an important element in the battle to retake the city of Tikrit last year, while local police bring knowledge of the province and are also tasked with holding recaptured areas.

HASHED AL-SHAABI: An umbrella organisation of pro-government paramilitary forces that is dominated by Iran-backed Shiite militias. The militiamen have played a major role in earlier battles against IS, but some have also been involved in abuses including extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and destruction of property. Past targeting of Sunni Arabs raises concerns about how they will treat the tens of thousands of civilians still in Fallujah.
 

TRIBAL FIGHTERS: Members of Anbar province tribes, their training and armament lags behind that of other forces, but they have important knowledge of local terrain, and were a key part of the successful defence of the Haditha area in Anbar against repeated IS attacks.

INTERNATIONAL COALITION: A US-led coalition of countries carrying out air strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria, and providing training and other assistance to forces fighting the jihadists in both countries. 

Source: AFP