Iraq army, volunteer forces battling ISIL in north Tikrit
Iraqi forces are battling the ISIL Takfiri militants in a neighborhood of the northern city of Tikrit as they press ahead with their large-scale offensive to regain control of the strategic city.
The Iraqi troops, backed by Shia and Sunni volunteers, recaptured parts of the Qadisiyah neighborhood while battling ISIL terrorists, an Iraqi security source said on Monday.
Several volunteer forces as well as dozens of militants were killed or wounded in the clashes.
Some 30,000 Iraqi troops and volunteers, backed by aircraft and artillery, launched the operation in and around Tikrit in Salahuddin province on Sunday to liberate the city.
They have already recaptured a number of districts around Tikrit.
“The army, federal police, Popular Mobilization (volunteer) units, and the sons of Salahuddin's tribes are performing the duties of liberation in the largest operation against Daesh (ISIL) since June,” said a senior army officer on the ground.
“We are certain of victory... but the operation is not easy,” he added.
located some 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, Tikrit was overrun by the ISIL terrorists in summer 2014 along with Iraq’s second-largest city of Mosul and other areas in the Arab country’s Sunni heartland. Tikrit has a strategic position as it sits on the road to Mosul.
The ISIL terrorists control parts of Iraq and neighboring Syria. They have been engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.
Earlier on Monday, the terror group released a video showing the purported execution of four Sunni tribesmen in the Tikrit region for allegedly collaborating with the Iraqi government.
MR/NN/AS
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