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Battle for Tikrit

July 15, 2014

Officials say Iraqi security forces have begun advancing into the rebel-held city of Tikrit in a bid to retake the city. It is the latest assault in an offensive that began two-and-a-half weeks ago.

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Shiite volunteers, loyal to Muslim Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, take positions during a military advance in areas under the control of Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images
Image: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP/Getty Images

Security forces began the new assault on Tuesday morning and had succeeded in recapturing some government facilities in the city's south, officials said.

"Iraqi forces began a military operation to liberate the city of Tikrit and our forces were able to control the southern part of the city," the governor of Salaheddin province, Ahmed Abdullah Juburi, told AFP news agency.

Tikrit, the home town of executed Iraqi dicatator Saddam Hussein, is the capital of Salaheddin province. The city has become a stronghold for Saddam loyalists and ex-army officers who joined forces with jihadist-led Sunni militants to take over large parts of north and west Iraq last month.

The army offensive to retake Tikrit, situated 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad, began more than two weeks ago, but bogged down south of the city. Militants seized the provincial capital on June 11, shortly after capturing the major city of Mosul.

Security forces at first fled before the insurgent onslaught led by jihadists from the group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but have since rallied and recaptured some ground from the militants - who now call themselves simply "Islamic State" after declaring a so-called "caliphate."

However, the insurgency still threatens to tear apart Iraq along ethnic and sectarian lines as the country struggles to form a government capable of unifying the country.

tj/msh (Reuters, AFP)