[So far, the United States-led international coalition has sat
out the battle for Tikrit, with American officials saying they were uncomfortable
with the prominent role of Shiite militias and Iranian military officials in
taking a predominantly Sunni city.]
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Iraqi
soldiers prepared to launch a military operation to take control of
Tikrit
from Islamic State militants on Tuesday.
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BAGHDAD — Iraqi
security forces and allied Shiite militias seized large parts of Tikrit on
Tuesday, amid reports that most of the Islamic State 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 in the so-called Sunni triangle that holds strategic and
emotional importance in the effort to roll back the Islamic State’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 the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.
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 Baiji. And already, the government offensive
has exposed tensions in the American-Iraqi alliance.
So far, the United States-led international coalition has sat
out the battle for Tikrit, with American officials saying they were uncomfortable
with the prominent role of Shiite militias and Iranian military officials in
taking a predominantly Sunni city.
Rafid Jaboori, the spokesman for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi,
said in a recent interview that despite the absence of direct American involvement
in Tikrit, the United States would have “a significant role” in any operation
to take Mosul, as would Kurdish pesh merga forces.
He added, that the United States and Iran shared an interest in
seeing the Islamic State defeated.
Officials of the Salahuddin Province military command center
said Tuesday night 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.
Islamic State fighters have posted photographs to social media showing them
cavorting on the grounds.
The Iraqi security officials, who spoke on condition of
anonymity to discuss the continuing military operation, said they believed most
of the Islamic State fighters had begun withdrawing from Tikrit because the
pro-government forces had met little resistance by the end of the day. But they
were proceeding cautiously because of fears of traps and suicide bombers.
There was strong resistance in the northern neighborhood of
Qadisiya earlier in the day, and Islamic State fighters bombed a bridge leading
north to the village of Alam to slow the advance of pro-government forces, the
officials said.
One concern surrounding the operation is that Shiite militiamen
might seek to take revenge on Sunni residents around Tikrit, as happened with
earlier militia victories in Diyala Province. Tikrit carries a particular risk,
because it was at nearby Camp Speicher that the Islamic State massacred more than
1,000 Shiite soldiers. Leading Shiite clerics have called on the militias to
act with restraint as they advance.
North of Tikrit, Kurdish pesh merga forces have intensified
their action against ISIS, pushing back against the militants south
and west of Kirkuk while supported by American airstrikes. The Kurds also took
control of a key route from Kirkuk to Mosul, according to Kurdish officials.
ISIS fighters withdrew toward the town of Hawija, where residents said the
militants killed a number of their own fighters who had been trying to flee.
With those new operations, ISIS is being pushed from several
directions at once, and Kurdish forces are signaling that they want a role in
any fight for Mosul. As well, the Kurds are seeking to strengthen their hold on
Kirkuk, an oil-rich area that has long been the subject of a tug of war between
Kurds and Arabs.
American airstrikes in northeastern Syria also have allowed
Kurdish forces there to take back dozens of villages that had been seized by
ISIS in recent weeks, according to the United States Central Command.
In Anbar Province, a vast and heavily Sunni area west of
Baghdad, security officials said Iraqi forces continued to battle ISIS, gaining
ground but losing two senior officers, a deputy army commander and the leader
of a Sunni anti-ISIS militia in the area.
Reporting was
contributed by Omar Al-Jawoshy, Ahmed Saleh and Falih Hassan from Baghdad, and
an employee of The New York Times from Salahuddin Province
