Fallujah retake 'accomplished'

Iraq’s national security adviser Qassem Dawoud said today the massive military operation to retake Fallujah “is accomplished” with about 1,000 insurgents killed and 200 captured.

“The Al-Fajr operation in Iraq is accomplished,” he said. “What is left is evil pockets which we are dealing with now. The number of terrorists and Saddam loyalists killed has reached more than 1,000. As for the detainees, the number is 200 people.”

However Dawoud said that Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Fallujah insurgent leader Abdullah al-Janabi “have escaped”.

He also said about 90% of Fallujah’s residents had left the city before the Monday start of the mass ground assault.