Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
Get the news
Log In or Subscribe to skip
262 10 [h=6]Share This Story![/h]Let friends in your social network know what you are reading about
[h=4]Despite booby traps, human shields ISIL near 'collapse' in Tikrit[/h]Islamic State fighters killed the prominent leader of a Shiite militia in the battle of Tikrit Saturday as Iraqi government leaders predicted they would defeat the extremists in two to three days.
{# #}
[h=4]Sent![/h]A link has been sent to your friend's email address.
[h=4]Posted![/h]A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.
[h=6]Join the Nation's Conversation[/h]To find out more about Facebook commenting please read the Conversation Guidelines and FAQs
[h=2]UP NEXT[/h][h=2]03[/h]
Iraqi troops clashed along two fronts with Islamic State militants in Tikrit Thursday as rockets and mortars echoed across Saddam Hussein's hometown a day after soldiers and allied Shiite militiamen swept into this Sunni city north of Baghdad. (Marc AP
Iraqi Shiite militiamen chant slogans during clashes with the Islamic State group in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, on March 13, 2015. On Friday, the Iraqi military fought fierce battles to secure a northern Tikrit neighborhood and lobbed mortars and rockets into the city center, still in the hands of the Islamic State.(Photo: Khalid Mohammed, AP)
SALAHUDDIN PROVINCE, Iraq — Islamic State fighters killed the prominent leader of a Shiite militia in the battle of Tikrit on Saturday, but Iraqi officers said the dwindling band of extremists were in "total collapse."
Iraqi government leaders predicted ISIL fighters in the city will be defeated in two or three days.
Commander Abou Hasaneen Al Mosawi of the Imam Ali Brigade died during intense fighting in the Qadisiya neighborhood in northern Tikrit, said Ali Al Sarai, a spokesman for the Popular Mobilization, the umbrella group for the Iranian-backed Shiite militias who have joined the Iraqi army's campaign against the Islamic State.
Al Mosawi died as around 20,000 militia members and 3,000 professional Iraqi troops laid siege to Tikrit and slowly advanced from the north and south on around 70 Islamic State militants holed up in the city center, said another militia spokesman Karim al-Nouri. The militants, who have controlled Tikrit since last summer, have impeded the offensive by booby-trapping the city.
"The Islamic State has made a very complicated net of bombs in the streets," said Al Sarai. "We have an engineering unit working very hard to clear those roads."
As the engineers clear the explosives, the militias and government troops have been bombarding Islamic State positions and engaging in small-scale firefights.
USA TODAY
Iraqi forces closing in on Tikrit in key offensive
"The military leaders are reassessing the situation and trying to figure out how much the Islamic State can resist the complete siege imposed on them," said Esmael Halup Said, deputy governor of Saladin Province, where Tikrit is located.
The situation is becoming increasingly desperate for the Islamic State, said Iraqi army Maj. Mohammed Ali. The Islamist militants blew up all the mobile phone towers in the city in recent days as the noose tightened around their position.
"They realized that residents were giving us information about their movements," he said. "We still can listen to their internal communications, and we know how weak they are at this moment. They are in total collapse."
USA TODAY
Iraqis in Tikrit feel trapped by war with ISIL
Iraqi forces entered Tikrit on Wednesday in the first major battle against Islamic State fighters who took over much of northern Iraq last summer. Retaking the city is considered a test for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who assumed office in September. He has said that the Islamic State must be stopped "for our own sake."
Al-Nouri said as many as 40 Iranian advisers are helping in the offensive. Their participation has raised questions about how the Shiite militias will treat Tikrit's largely Sunni residents if and when the city falls. The Sunni Islamic State militants have massacred Shiites, whom they consider apostates, in territories under their control.
The Imam Ali Brigade was accused of beheading Sunni captives last year after defeating Islamic State militants with the help of American airstrikes. Shiite leaders later condemned the beheadings.
Around 80 miles north of Baghdad, Tikrit is the hometown of the dictator Saddam Hussein, who was executed at the end of 2006. Most of the city's 260,000 residents have already fled, but Iraqi officials have estimated that around 10% are trapped inside.
Bakr Mohammed and five family members escaped Tikrit two weeks ago by giving $600 to Islamic State fighters who were guarding a checkpoint leading out of the city. He is now in Kirkuk, around 80 miles northwest of Tikrit. The Islamic State is using his neighbors who couldn't leave as human shields to slow down the militias and Iraqi forces, he said.
"The Islamic State started preventing residents from leaving the city once they realized that the Iraqi government was launching an operation," said Mohammed.
In another development, Kurdish authorities in Iraq said Saturday they have evidence that the Islamic State group used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against peshmerga fighters, the Associated Press reported.
The allegation by the Kurdistan Region Security Council, stemming from a Jan. 23 suicide truck bomb attack in northern Iraq, did not immediately draw a reaction from the Islamic State group, which holds a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in its self-declared caliphate. However, Iraqi officials and Kurds fighting in Syria have made similar allegations about the militants using the low-grade chemical weapons against them.
In a statement, the council said the alleged chemical attack took place on a road between Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, and the Syrian border, as peshmerga forces fought to seize a vital supply line used by the Sunni militants. It said its fighters later found "around 20 gas canisters" that had been loaded onto the truck involved in the attack.
An official with the Kurdish council told the AP that dozens of peshmerga fighters were treated for "dizziness, nausea, vomiting and general weakness" after the attack. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the incident.
Dyer reported from Berlin
More from Iraq:
USA TODAY
Homeless Iraqis say government planes bombed them
0) { %> 0) { %>
0) { %>
Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed