The leadership of Harakat al Nujaba, or Movement of the Noble, an Iranian-supported Shiite militia which operates in both Iraq and Syria, said it is clearing a road in eastern Anbar province in preparation for an upcoming offensive to retake Fallujah from the Islamic State.

Akram Abbas al Kabi, the Secretary General of Harakat al Nujaba, and Hashem al Musawi, his spokesman both recently commented on the group’s role in operations in and around Fallujah.

Fallujah, which is just 30 miles from Iraq’s capital of Baghdad, was the first major Iraqi city to fall to the Islamic State in January 2014 – while it was still part of al Qaeda’s network.

Kabi said that “Harakat al Nujabas special forces and the Anbar Regiment – the majority of which is comprised of our brothers from the residents of Karma and Fallujah – have begun heading to Fallujah to take part in the large and decisive operation to cut off the head of the snake and to avenge all of the martyrs of Iraq,” according to a translation by Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He made the statement on Nujaba’s offical website.

“We promise the Iraqi people we will have vengeance for every drop of a martyr’s blood from this cradle of terrorism and that there will be no place for the DAISH [Islamic State] within it,” Kabi continued. “We shall purify it from their ritual uncleanness soon and we shall return its honorable residents who have fled from their houses [due to] injustice and aggression.”

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