Why this Iraqi city is starving
Residents of Fallujah, Mosul and other Iraqi cities under the Islamic State’s control are suffering under an IS strategy calculated to turn them against their government.
BAGHDAD — The city of Fallujah in Anbar province has been under the Islamic State’s (IS) control for nearly two years. When asked about the living conditions there, Mahmoud Falluji (a pseudonym) said, “I reached a point where I was ready to slaughter a cat so my family and I could eat it.”
Al-Monitor met with Falluji, a former construction worker, in Baghdad after he paid IS militants $1,500 to let him, his wife and two children leave Fallujah. IS usually forces each person to pay $1,000 to leave, but Falluji was able to make a deal.
