Iraqi forces ‘retake Tikrit’ from Daesh

Dubai: Iraqi forces have entered the city of Tirkit and liberated it from Daesh’s occupation, raising the country’s flag over a hospital in the city centre, according to news reports.

Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen reported that Iraq security forces backed by popular mobilisation committees had entered Al Qadisiya neighbourhood in the centre of the city and taken the military hospital there.

They have also reportedly broken Daesh supply lines from Tikrit to Mosul.

As Iraqi troopers advance in Tikrit, however, Daesh launched a coordinated attack on government-held areas of the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on Wednesday, involving seven near-simultaneous suicide car bombs, police said.

At least 10 people were killed and 30 wounded in the attack, according to initial reports by police and hospital sources in the city, capital of Anbar province.

Advance

The Tikrit advance came amid reports that most of the Daesh militants battling to hold the city had begun retreating, security officials said.

The progress came after a week of heavy fighting to retake Tikrit, a city that holds both strategic and emotional importance in the effort to roll back the Daesh's lightning advance toward Baghdad in June.

The offensive is the largest pro-government military operation yet, involving a combined force of more than 30,000.

And if it succeeds, it would be a significant step in the march north to Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city and an early conquest for Daesh.

Still, previous announcements of victory for the Iraqi government have been reversed before, notably in parts of Anbar province and at an oil refinery near the city of Beiji.

And already, the government offensive has exposed tensions in the US-Iraqi alliance. So far, the US-led international coalition has sat out the battle for Tikrit.

Rafid Jaboori, the spokesman for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, said in a recent interview that despite the lack of direct US involvement in Tikrit, the United States would have "a significant role" in any operation to take Mosul, as would Kurdish peshmerga forces.

He noted, too, that the United States and Iran shared an interest in seeing Daesh defeated.

Officials of the Salahuddin province military command center said Tuesday that the pro-government forces in Tikrit had advanced within yards of central buildings, including the provincial council and governor's office, and had surrounded the palaces of Saddam Hussein on the edge of town.

Most of the Daesh fighters had begun withdrawing from Tikrit because the pro-government forces met little resistance by the end of the day, according to officers on the ground.

But they were proceeding cautiously because of fears of traps and suicide bombers.