Maliki In New Call For Tribes To Expel Al-Qaeda Militants

A man fills his car with personal belongings as families leave insecure neighborhoods in the flashpoint city of Fallujah.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has again called on residents of Anbar Province to take action to expel Al-Qaeda-linked militants from Fallujah.

In a televised address on January 22, Maliki said the time has come to "end the presence of this gang in this city and save its people from their evil."

However, the prime minister set no deadline for Sunni tribal forces to remove the militants.

Maliki has so far held off ordering a military assault inside Fallujah, saying he wants to avoid bloodshed and destruction.

Militants of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant group seized Fallujah and parts of Ramadi around the new year.

The United Nations, meanwhile, has released new figures of those affected by the violence, with 22,151 families registering as internally displaced persons, mainly in Anbar.


Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP