Agencies/Baghdad

Iraqi security forces are preparing to storm Fallujah and break a month-long standoff with militants who control the city, senior security officials and troops said yesterday.
Anti-government fighters, among them militants from the Al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), overran two cities in the Sunni-dominated western province of Anbar bordering Syria on January 1.
Iraqi government forces have since regained control over most of Ramadi, but Fallujah remains in militant hands and is surrounded by the army, which has periodically shelled it.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is also commander in chief of the armed forces, has held off an assault to give local tribesmen time to expel militants from Fallujah themselves.
But security officials said a decision had now been made to enter the city by 6pm today, Iraqi time.
“That’s it: they were given enough time to make their choice, but they failed,” a top security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said of the tribesmen and militants.
The official said the governor of Anbar had sent a “final warning” to militants and tribal fighters in Fallujah. Whoever wanted to leave the city would be given safe passage and those who lay down their arms will be offered amnesty, he added.
“The message was clear, we offered them to leave the city and be a part of the national reconciliation project,” the security official said. “But, if anyone insists on fighting our forces, he will be considered an ISIL militant whether he is or not.”
Fallujah residents and local officials said communications had been cut off in the city and its outskirts. Troops stationed in the surrounding area said they had received orders to be ready to raid the city.
“We are prepared to enter any minute. Some of our troops in southern and southeastern Fallujah have already moved in closer to the city,” said a commando whose unit is deployed on the highway just outside.
Officials said air strikes and shelling would intensify on the city before a ground assault by special operations units known as SWAT, which will clear any pockets of resistance.
“We expect to engage in a fierce battle in the southern areas of the city where militants are holed up,” said a SWAT officer deployed in Fallujah, who also declined to be named.
Elsewhere, a bombing at a wholesale vegetable market in south Baghdad killed two people, while a vehicle rigged with explosives was detonated in the sprawling Sadr City neighbourhood, killing one.
Another blast targeting an army patrol just north of the capital left a soldier dead, and attacks in the northern cities of Tuz Khurmatu and Samarra killed three more people.
Violence has surged markedly higher in recent months, with January’s death toll the highest for a month since April 2008, according to government data.
The UN released its own January toll yesterday, putting the number of deaths at 733, but said that did not include Anbar.