Iraq takes back Tikrit from ISIS

Security and allied forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition aircraft retook the hometown of former president Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi tricolour was raised.  

The operation began on March 2 and had looked bogged down before Iraqi forces made rapid advances over the past 48 hours.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi 'announces the liberation of Tikrit and congratulates Iraqi security forces and popular volunteers on the historic milestone', his official Twitter account said.

He was referring to paramilitary groups which played a major role in the fighting to retake Tikrit, a Sunni Arab city which ISIS had controlled since it captured swathes of Iraq in June last year.

Iraqiya state television showed footage of houses previously used by the terror group in liberated areas, but it was not clear whether any pockets of resistance remained.

The provincial government headquarters was retaken on Monday, and on Tuesday the Iraqi tricolour replaced the black ISIS flag on the building.

In a statement to AFP just minutes before Abadi's tweet, his spokesman Rafid Jaboori said: 'Iraqi forces reached the centre of Tikrit, raised the Iraqi flag and are now clearing the city.' 

There no immediate information on how many fighters were killed, wounded or captured in the fighting.

The government has not provided any casualty figures since the operation started a month ago.

Iraqi army and police forces, as well as volunteers and Iran-backed Shiite militias, completely surrounded Tikrit within two weeks of launching the operation.

There was a lull in fighting when government and allied forces apparently balked at the number of snipers, booby traps and trenches which ISIS was using to defend the city centre.

Iran was Baghdad's top foreign partner in the early stages of the operation, but Iraqi air force strikes were proving insufficient to break the back of IS resistance.

The government eventually requested strikes from the U.S.-led coalition which has been assisting Iraqi forces elsewhere in the country since August last year.

American jets began bombing ISIS targets in Tikrit on March 25. France also took part in the campaign.

The move sparked a freeze in the participation of the Popular Mobilisation units, an umbrella organisation for volunteers and militias which accounted for the bulk of the manpower involved in the Tikrit battle.

The Pentagon had expressed unease at the role played by Iran and its proxies in the battle and said it conditioned its intervention on regular forces taking the lead. 

On Friday, it hailed the withdrawal from the fight of 'those Shiite militias who are linked to, infiltrated by, (or) otherwise under the influence of Iran'.

(dailymail.co.uk)