Iraqi forces enter IS-held Tikrit after 10-day push

Iraqi forces entered Tikrit Wednesday, dodging bombs and sniper fire in search of their biggest victory yet against embattled jihadists who tried to light new fires elsewhere in Iraq and Syria.

It is without direct support from the US-led coalition’s air campaign that Iraqi government and allied forces punched into parts of the city, marking a new phase in a 10-day drive to wrest the city back from IS.

A combination of army, police and volunteer forces moved into northern and southern Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and a main IS stronghold.

A major-general tells AFP on condition of anonymity that government forces were battling “to cleanse the neighborhood of Qadisiyah” in Tikrit.

“But we are engaging in a very delicate battle because we are not facing fighters on the ground, we are facing booby-trapped terrain and sniper fire. Our movement is slow,” he said.

An army colonel says forces coming from another direction had also retaken the main hospital on the city’s southern edge.

Early in the offensive, in which up to 30,000 men were initially involved while IS is believed to have just a few hundred men inside Tikrit, most outlying areas were reconquered.

— AFP