Iraq Jihadists Slow Tikrit Advance with Bombs and Snipers

AFP

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Iraqi forces closed in on Tikrit Tuesday, their progress slowed by jihadist snipers and booby traps, on the second day of Baghdad’s largest operation yet against the Islamic State group.

The government has mobilised a 30,000-strong force for the push to retake Tikrit made up of Shiite militiamen and Sunni tribesmen as well as troops and police.

Outnumbered and outgunned, the jihadists who have held Tikrit since June 2014 have been resorting to guerrilla tactics to disrupt the government’s three-pronged advance…

“The battle for Tikrit and other towns in Salaheddin province will provide a mini-preview of what awaits further to the north in Mosul,” The Soufan Group intelligence consultancy said in a brief.

Tikrit and its surroundings are Sunni and some local tribes have been accused of involvement in the massacre of hundreds of new, mostly Shiite, recruits at a nearby base called Speicher in June…

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Click here to read the IntelBrief quoted above.

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