Islamic State is putting up a tough fight in Falluja and its recapture by the Iraqi army could take time, said Iraqi Finance Minister Hoshiyar Zebari. Falluja, located 50 kilometers (32 miles) west of Baghdad, has been a bastion of the Sunni insurgency that fought both the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Shi’ite-led Baghdad government. Islamic State fighters raised their flag there in January 2014 before sweeping through much of Iraq’s north and west, declaring a caliphate several months later, from Mosul. “Falluja is a tough nut to crack,” he told Reuters in an interview on Thursday evening. “Daesh are holding the population as hostages, not allowing them to escape, and they are putting up a tough fight there,” he added, referring to the militant group by one of its Arabic acronyms. “Nobody can give you a definitive time when Falluja will be cleared of Daesh. Mainly because […]