Fallujah starts bomb clearance campaign to make homecoming possible

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- With help from the police and bomb disposal teams the Fallujah city council has started a campaign of clearing the city of bombs and explosives days after it was retaken from the Islamic State (ISIS) by Iraqi troops.

“The Fallujah city council with police forces, public service offices and volunteers launched a camping  to clean the city in the hope of encouraging families to return, ” Colonel Jamal Jomaeily, Fallujah police chief announced on Saturday.

“A team of de-mining engineers are also taking part in the campaign to defuse the bombs that ISIS has planted in the streets of the city,” he added.

Joemeily said the aim of this campaign is to make it possible for families who fled the city during last month’s battle to return to their homes.

More than 20,000 people were believed to have fled Fallujah and settled in temporary camps in the outskirts of the city.

Iraqi troops and their Shiite militia partners known as Hashd al-Shaabi drove out ISIS militants from the Sunni city last month in a major military operation a year and a half after its capture by the extremist group.

Local officials have reported that many parts of the city were destroyed during the military operation by ISIS bombs and the army’s extensive use of artillery and air strikes.

Anbar governor Suhaib al-Rawi has encouraged escaped families to return home, calling on teachers and government employees in the meantime to report to work or face salary cuts and job losses.

The United Nations mission in Iraq welcomed earlier this month the announcement by the government on people’s return to their homes urging meanwhile that all returns must be voluntary and without discrimination.