Inside Fallujah's Siege: Trapped With Islamic State
A defeat for Islamic State would be a blow to its jihadist narrative. But residents fear sectarian violence may follow the city's recapture.
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Abu Anas al-Falluji gives each of his three children a 5-milligram tablet of Valium at bedtime to help them sleep through the thud of rocket and mortar fire as Iraqi forces battle Islamic State. And, he says, to dull any pain if the family’s home is hit.
Life in Fallujah — the first Iraqi city to fall to the extremists and now a major test of their staying power — is full of grim routines. Each night, al-Falluji says goodbye to his wife, just in case. She wears trousers to bed. “Should we die and people have to dig us out of the rubble, her body and legs won’t be exposed,” he explains in a phone interview from the city.