Fallujah’s tribal leaders have threatened to fight if the Iraqi military makes an effort to retake the city from al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), but that doesn’t mean they’re okay with AQI staying either.
Tribal leaders have also issued a demand for AQI’s fighters to withdraw or face expulsion by tribal militias. The leaders used mosque loudspeakers to spread the demands to leave.
Much of the Anbar Province was in open revolt against the Maliki government before AQI even got to Fallujah, and they have made the situation all the more desperate, and food and water are in short supply for the locals because of nearby fighting.
Between shortages and the threat of imminent invasion by the military, tens of thousands of locals have fled Fallujah. Some of them are staying with relatives elsewhere, but a lot of them are staying in schools and shelters elsewhere in the province.