United Nations warns 20000 children are trapped in Iraq's Fallujah

There is a charred tank, split in two, sits at an intersection in the city, and smoke is always rising in the distance, due to an airstrike, a mortar or a vehicle bomb.

Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi on Wednesday said the army slowed down the pace of the offensive because of fears for the safety of tens of thousands of civilians trapped in the city with limited access to water, food and health care.

Whether Mr.al-Abadi will be able to unify the country and heal those deep divisions remains to be seen, but without a political reconciliation with the Sunni minority that was disenfranchised by the 2003 US invasion that led to the fall of former dictator Saddam Hussein, it's hard to see how ISIS' appeal to disgruntled Sunnis will diminish in Fallujah - or in Mosul, which USA and Iraqi officials hope to retake next.

Mr Al Abadi has also warned that any whiff of sectarian violence by anti-ISIL forces against the local population risks inflaming an already precarious national climate and would tarnish military victories in Fallujah. It was also the moment it became very clear that we were no longer fighting old-regime loyalists but an altogether new insurgency among Iraqis opposed to the USA occupation of their country.

Fallujah is one of the last IS strongholds in Iraq.

The first attack occurred in the early hours of Saturday, as the armed group mounted an attack with a suicide auto bomber targeting Iraqi army and Shia fighters to the south east of Fallujah city, killing at least 14 soldiers and 15 injuring others.

Iraqi security forces and allied Popular Mobilization Forces clash with Islamic State militants in Saqlawiyah near Fallujah, Iraq, Thursday, June 2, 2016.

Syria Arab News Agency

ISIS fighters have had an iron grip on Fallujah since capturing it two years ago. That will make it harder to differentiate between friend and foe.

He discussed "ways of rescuing the families being held hostage and opening safe corridors for them", his office said in a statement.

Men and boys who refuse to fight for ISIS are being killed, and civilians have died in heavy shelling, the United Nations says. Government forces have imposed a tight blockade on the city and IS militants are reportedly preventing residents from leaving.

Unicef has called on combatants in Fallujah to allow safe passage for the children and families caught up in the renewed fighting and said the children risk being drawn in as fighters. Such an arrangement is unlikely to happen because it would require negotiations between both sides.

"Since the start of the operation, we have received about 70 martyrs, probably a bit more", said a member of the security forces posted outside Najaf's Valley of Peace, the world's largest cemetery, where many from Iraq's Shiite majority bury their dead. The Iraqi side suffered losses, the official added, declining to say how many.

In April, at least 741 Iraqis were killed and 1,374 wounded.

The bombers came in over the Iraqi desert just before dawn, attacking the road to Baghdad so as to avoid civilian carnage in the city center or damage to the vital bridge spanning the Euphrates River.