Baghdad/Erbil, Iraq, June 12 (Reuters) - The Iraqi army (click here) said on Sunday it had secured the first safe exit route for civilians to leave Islamic State's besieged stronghold Falluja, and a Norwegian aid group said thousands of people had already used it to flee in the first day it was open.
While it pressed on with its offensive in Falluja, the army also launched a fresh advance in the direction of the northern city of Mosul, Islamic State's de facto Iraqi capital, under cover of airstrikes from a U.S.-led coalition.The assaults by the Iraqi army are taking place at the same time as advances against Islamic State by U.S.-backed fighters and Russian-backed Syrian government forces in Syria, at the opposite end of the militants' self-proclaimed caliphate.
Fighting on a range of fronts in both Iraq and Syria in recent weeks amounts to some of the biggest pressure on the militants since they swept across much of Iraq and Syria in 2014 and declared their rule over all Muslims from territory that is home to millions of people....
