Five days into an Iraqi military operation to push Islamic State fighters out of Fallujah, residents still inside the city are preparing for a long battle, with some saying they fear being trapped between two forces they don't fully trust.
More than 50,000 people remain in the center of the Sunni majority city, which has been under control of the extremist group for more than two years. Those who want to leave describe deteriorating humanitarian conditions, but they also say they are wary of the Iraqi government forces who have pledged to liberate them.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the start of the offensive late Sunday night. Backed by airstrikes from a US-led coalition, Iraqi forces are tightening their grip around Fallujah and dislodging IS militants from key areas.
"The airstrikes are almost constant," one man told The Associated Press by phone from inside the city Thursday. The resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concerns for his safety, said that after living for weeks on rice, canned food and processed cheese, those stocks were beginning to run low.
While many in Fallujah welcomed the takeover of the city by the Sunni-led Islamic State group as an alternative to what they considered their marginalization at the hands of Iraq's leaders, humanitarian conditions in the city have deteriorated under the extremists.
Located 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad, the city has a history of anti-government sentiment in post 2003 Iraq.
After the US-led invasion in 2003 toppled Saddam Hussein, the city's 250,000 residents initially supported a Sunni insurgency that rose up against US forces and the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad. Militants from al-Qaida in Iraq fought two bloody battles with US troops in Fallujah in 2004 that killed more than 100 Americans and wounded more than 1,000.
As Iraqi government troops surrounded Fallujah in summer 2015, residents began reporting increased cases of malnutrition, with the siege preventing food and medicine from entering the city.
This week, as the fighting intensified, food and water are becoming even harder to find, residents told the AP by phone and the internet. The Iraqi forces don't want the militants to escape the city, and coalition officials estimated earlier this week that 500-700 IS fighters remain in Fallujah, nestled among the civilian population.
Iraqi military officials insist that safe "corridors" will be established to allow civilians to flee, but residents say IS-controlled checkpoints along the city's main roads have made that nearly impossible. The United Nations said nearly 800 people have fled in the past week, but most were from the outskirts where IS control is weaker.
AP