Operation Fallujah: 240 airstrikes in nine days

As the fight for Fallujah intensifies, the Iraqi military has revealed it has launched at least 240 air raids since the beginning of its military operations, as a leading aid group raised alarm over the unfolding "human catastrophe" in the city. 

Iraqi forces began the operation on May 22 to retake the Islamic State group bastion, which lies only 50km (30 miles) west of Baghdad.

Iraqi air force chief Hamed al-Maliki said Iraq's air force "gave extensive support for ground troops in operation Fallujah".

"There was a total of 560 dispatches, including 240 airstrikes and 320 general operations around the city."

Five things you need to know about Fallujah Rebel city Fallujah was once a small trading post on the Euphrates River, 50km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, but its aura in modern Iraq belies its relatively modest size. Sunni tribes were always powerful in Fallujah, whose reputation as a troublesome city predates the US-led invasion of 2003. In 1920, the murder there of a British officer was one of the sparks that ignited a nationwide revolt against the colonial power. The anti-British rebellion was the inspiration for the name of an armed group called the 1920 Revolution Brigades, which was founded in 2003 and remained active in the Fallujah area before it was absorbed by IS in 2014. 'City of Mosques' Fallujah is an important religious hub for Iraq's Sunni minority. Its skyline bristles with hundreds of minarets that have earned it the nickname "City of Mosques". Built on a crossroads for routes from Saudi Arabia and Jordan, Fallujah was one of the first places in Iraq where hardline Wahhabi ideology took root. Saddam Hussein jailed several radical preachers from Fallujah, although the city was generally not hostile to him and benefited from the policies of his Baath party regime that favoured Sunni Arabs. Blackwater Bridge On March 31, 2003, insurgents ambushed a convoy carrying four US contractors working for the private military company Blackwater. They were killed, their bodies dragged on the road and eventually hung from a bridge over the Euphrates. Photos of the mutilated bodies were beamed around the world, and remain among the most searing images of the US-led war in Iraq. The bridge became known as "Blackwater Bridge" and the incident jolted the world into an awareness of the violent reality that was going to prevail in Iraq, a year after the overthrow of Saddam. 'New Vietnam' Operation Phantom Fury was launched on November 7, 2004 and turned into the bloodiest battle US service personnel had seen since the Vietnam War. They went house to house in a bid to retake a city that had already become the capital of al-Qaeda in Iraq, a precursor of the Islamic State group, founded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The battle, in which 95 US troops were killed and more than 500 wounded, holds a special place in recent US military history. Varying estimates put the number of insurgents killed at between 1,000 and 1,500, and civilian casualties were believed to be in the hundreds. 'Head of the snake' Fallujah fell to anti-government fighters in early 2014 after security forces withdrew during unrest that began when they cleared a year-old anti-government protest camp near Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, sparking fighting that later spread to Fallujah. The fall of Fallujah, which later became a key IS stronghold, was the first time that anti-government forces had exercised such open control in an Iraqi city since the height of the violence that followed the US-led invasion. IS' broad offensive, in which second city Mosul was captured, did not happen until June 2014. Fallujah is seen by many Iraqis as the place where it all began and is sometimes nicknamed "the head of the snake".

The statement comes after Iraqi forces repelled a four-hour attack by the Islamic State group in the city's southern edges on Tuesday, a day after first moving into the suburbs of the militant-held city with the help of US-led coalition airstrikes. 

The attack started at dawn in Fallujah's Nuaimiya district, where Iraqi troops captured almost 85 percent of the area the previous day.

IS militants used tunnels, deployed snipers and sent six explosive-laden cars to hit the troops but the vehicles were destroyed before reaching their targets, two officers told AP.

Iraqi forces suffered severe casualties, but the officers didn't give details.

Nuaimiya is a sprawling mainly agricultural area in Fallujah's south, and Monday's push into it was the first attempt by Iraqi forces to enter the city after focusing on dislodging the militants from surrounding areas to tighten the siege.

Fallujah has been under Islamic State group control for more than two years and is the last major city in western Iraq still under control of the group.

The militants still control patches of territory in the country's north and east as well as the country's second-largest city, Mosul.

The group is expected to increase attacks in major Iraqi cities in an attempt to distract the security forces' attention away from the front lines. On Monday, IS claimed responsibility for a wave of bombings in and around the capital, Baghdad, that killed at least 24 people and wounded dozens.

'Human catastrophe' unfolding in Fallujah

The siege of Fallujah and the 50,000 civilians believed trapped inside is a catastrophe in the making, the Norwegian Refugee Council warned on Tuesday.

Secretary-General Jan Egeland renewed a call for safe corridors to be opened to prevent massive civilian loss of life.

"A human catastrophe is unfolding in Fallujah. Families are caught in the crossfire with no safe way out," he said in a statement.

"For nine days we have heard of only one single family managing to escape from inside the town. Warring parties must guarantee civilians safe exit now, before it's too late and more lives are lost," he said.

NRC runs camps in Amriyat al-Fallujah, a government-controlled town south of Fallujah, where fleeing civilians are given shelter and assistance.

The aid effort across Iraq and Syria is hugely underfunded but Egeland appealed for emergency funding to meet the immediate needs of the most vulnerable people from Fallujah.

"There isn't enough safe drinking water and the situation will quickly worsen with summer around the corner, and temperatures likely to hit over 50 degrees Celsius [122F]," he said.

"The international community must urgently provide funding so that we can help the most vulnerable people."

Agencies contributed to this report