ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The final fight to force Islamic State (ISIS) militants from the city of Fallujah will take place in "days, not weeks," said the leader of one of the Shiite militias participating in the Iraqi Army-led assault on Friday. Speaking on state television alongside Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who was wearing the black uniform of Iraq's elite counter-terrorism unit, Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Badr Organization, said the first phase of the operation to retake Fallujah is nearly complete. Amiri has promised that the Shiite militias fighting under the umbrella of the Hashd al-Shaabi will not enter the city itself, but will instead play a supporting role to the regular Iraqi Army by encircling the city, unless the Iraqi Army fails to successfully recapture the city. The Fallujah offensive began on Monday after the Iraqi military warned the residents of the city on Sunday to either flee, or, if not possible to flee, remain in the city but hold a white flag to indicate to the Iraqi military that they pose no threat. The operation was launched after a very turbulent month in Baghdad. Bomb attacks on the city carried out by ISIS have killed over 200 people in the month of May alone. And parliament was stormed twice in less than a month by angry protesters demanding the immediate implementation of governmental reforms. Abadi urged protesters not to mount more demonstrators during the ongoing Fallujah operation. "I call upon our youth to postpone their protest tomorrow [Friday], because our security forces are busy fighting in Fallujah," Abadi said on Thursday, according to AFP.
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