ISIS fighters halt Iraqi offensive to recapture Tikrit
BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces halted a short-lived offensive on Tuesday to recapture Tikrit, home town of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, due to fierce resistance from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) fighters who have also threatened to attack Americans “in any place”.
In Geneva, the United Nations refugee agency announced a major aid operation to get supplies to more than half a million people displaced by fighting in northern Iraq. Buoyed by an operation to recapture a strategic dam from the jihadists after two months of setbacks, Iraqi army units backed by Shia militias launched their offensive shortly after dawn on Tikrit, a city 130 km north of Baghdad which is a stronghold of the Sunni Muslim minority.
But officers in the Iraqi forces’ operations room said by mid afternoon that the advance had stopped. South of Tikrit, the government side came under heavy machinegun and mortar fire from the militants, a group of Arab and foreign fighters hardened by battle both in Iraq and over the border in Syria’s civil war, the officers told Reuters.
To the west, landmines and snipers frustrated efforts to get closer to the city centre in the latest in a series of attempts to drive out the militants. Residents of central Tikrit said by telephone that ISIS fighters were firmly in control of their positions and patrolling the main streets.