Iraqi forces pushed into the southern edge of Fallujah on Monday, enduring car bombs and sniper fire from Islamic State fighters determined to hold onto the strategic western city. – Washington Post
Militants unleashed a wave of attacks targeting commercial areas in and around Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 24 people, officials said as Iraqi troops poised to recapture the Islamic State-held city of Fallujah, west of Iraq's capital. – Associated Press
Iraqi special forces advanced to the edge of Fallujah on Monday but struggled to enter the city, where Iraqi and U.S. officials said Islamic State extremists were amassing civilians to serve as human shields. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
Servicemen from the U.S.-led coalition were seen near the front line of a new offensive in northern Iraq launched on Sunday by Kurdish peshmerga forces that aims to retake a handful of villages from Islamic State east of their Mosul stronghold. – Reuters
Backed by their U.S.-led allies in the air, Iraqi forces on Monday began pushing into the city of Fallujah, which has been held by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria for more than two years, according to news reports. – The Hill
Iraqi government troops began storming the Islamic State-held city of Fallujah on Monday, army officials said, even as the jihadist group waged suicide attacks in the nearby Iraqi capital, Baghdad. – Los Angeles Times
Military campaigns against the Islamic State took place around three major cities controlled by the terror group over the weekend: Fallujah 40 miles west of Baghdad, Mosul in Iraq’s northernmost province, and Raqqa in Syria, ISIS’s capital. – Washington Free Beacon
In northern Iraq, Kurdish Peshmerga forces, also with U.S. support, began operations on Sunday to retake areas east of Mosul. The Peshmerga have reportedly captured three villages in the first day of the new offensive. Agence France-Presse reported seeing what appeared to be U.S. military advisors working with Kurdish troops, but local forces would not confirm the identity of the commandos. The Islamic State continued its campaign of frequent car bomb attacks today, killing 24 people in attacks on the neighborhoods of Shaab and Sadr City in Baghdad, and in Tarmiyah, north of the capital.