Iraq’s special forces have completed a troop buildup around Fallujah ahead of an operation to retake the Islamic State-held city west of Baghdad.
(FOX)- Maj. Dhia Thamir, of the Special Forces Service, says the last battalion arrived at dawn Sunday at the sprawling Tariq Camp outside Fallujah.
Thamir declined to comment on troop numbers or the timing of the expected assault.
He says troops have recaptured 80 percent of the territory around the city since the operation began a week ago.
Fallujah, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of Baghdad, is one of the last major IS strongholds in Iraq.
The extremist group still controls territory in the country’s north and west, including Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.