New Video Reveals Fallujah Destruction

​More than a week after the Iraqi city of Fallujah was declared to be liberated from the Islamic State group, new footage has revealed the destruction left behind.

The city, which is 45 miles west of Baghdad, is deserted.

Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab al Saadi, who had been overseeing the Fallujah operation as special forces commander, said he hoped families would return soon, but that "technical and security" issues needed addressed first.

The footage shows buildings destroyed and roads littered with burnt-out cars and debris.

Fallujah was the first Iraqi city to be captured by Islamic State.

Along with Mosul, it was one of two major urban areas held by IS.

The terror group took control in January 2014, six months before announcing a self-proclaimed caliphate in areas of Iraq and Syria.

The city had a population of more than 320,000 in 2010 but this has dwindled, with estimates at the beginning of the campaign ranging from 50,000 to 70,000.

Fallujah is a historic bastion of the insurgency against the US occupation of Iraq and the Shia-led authorities who took over after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003.

A year later, the public killing of American security contractors became an iconic image that changed the US public's perception of the Iraq war and preceded a brutal US military response.