Iraqi forces attempt to seal off Islamic State around Tikrit - Yahoo NewsBy Ahmed Rasheed and also D...

1. Iraqi forces try to seal off Islamic State around Tikrit
Iraqi forces attempt to seal off Islamic State around Tikrit - Yahoo News
By Ahmed Rasheed and also Dominic Evans
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - 1000's associated with Iraqi soldiers along with Shi'ite militiamen sought to
seal off Islamic State fighters within Tikrit and neighborhood towns on Tuesday, the next day
associated with Iraq's biggest offensive yetagainst a stronghold with the radical Sunni Islamist
militants.
Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, that has assisted coordinate Baghdad's counter-
attacks against Islamic State since it seized much of northern Iraq within June, has been overseeing
a minimal of part of the actual operation, witnesses told Reuters.
His presence around the frontline highlights neighboring Iran's influence more than the Shi'ite
fighters whom have been key to containing the militants inside Iraq.
In contrast your U.S.-led air coalition which in turn continues to be attacking Islamic State across
Iraq along with Syria offers not really yet played a job inside Tikrit, your Pentagon said upon
Monday, perhaps in part simply because in the high-level Iranian presence.
Iraqi military officials stated safety forces backed by the Shi'ite militia known as Hashid Shaabi
(Popular Mobilisation) units were advancing gradually, his or her progress slowed by roadside
bombs and snipers.
View gallery Iraqi security forces along with Shi'ite
fighters fire artillery in the particular program of clashes with Islamic State mili ...
They haven't yet enter Tikrit, very best known since the hometown involving executed former
president Saddam Hussein, or possibly the close by Tigris river town regarding al-Dour, which
usually officials describe like a major middle for your Islamic State fighters.
On the southern flank with the offensive, army along with police officials said government forces
shifting north in the town of Samarra could launch an attack on al-Dour afterwards Tuesday.
Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, was directing operations around
the eastern flank from the village regarding 55 km (35 miles) through Tikrit called Albu Rayash,
captured via Islamic State two days ago.
With him had been a couple of Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitary leaders: the leader with the Hashid Shaabi,

2. Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, and Hadi al-Amiri who leads your Badr Organisation, a new powerful Shi'ite
militia.
"(Soleimani) has been standing on top of a hill pointing with his hands toward the locations exactly
where Islamic State are usually still operating," mentioned a new witness who had been simply
accompanying security forces near Albu Rayash.
View gallery A Shi'ite fighter gestures in the particular
program of clashes using Islamic State militants in Salahuddin province Ma ...
PUSHING BACK
The offensive may become the biggest military operation within the Salahuddin region north
involving Baghdad since last summer, when Islamic State fighters killed a large variety of Iraq army
soldiers whom had abandoned their own military base at Camp Speicher outside Tikrit.
Several Shi'ite Hashid Shaabi fighters possess described this week's marketing campaign as revenge
for your Speicher killings. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi provides urged these to protect civilians
inside Salahuddin, a new mainly Sunni Muslim province.
The drive follows numerous failed attempts for you to push the actual militants from Tikrit. Since
Islamic State declared the caliphate this past year within territories below its control throughout
Iraq along with Syria, Iraqi forces have not really were in any position to recapture along with
manage any single city.
But a few months of U.S.-led air strikes, backed up from the Shi'ite militias, Kurdish peshmerga
fighters and also Iraqi soldiers, get contained Islamic State inside Iraq as well as pushed it back
again coming from around Baghdad, the Kurdish north, and additionally the eastern province
associated with Diyala.
View gallery Iraqi safety forces and Shi'ite fighters clash
using Islamic State militants inside Salahuddin prov ...
The Tikrit battle will possess a major impact on plans to go further north and recapture Mosul, your

3. largest town beneath Islamic State rule.
If your offensive stalls, it will complicate and also delay a transfer on Mosul. a quick victory gives
Baghdad momentum, yet virtually any retribution against local Sunnis would imperil efforts to
become able to earn over Mosul's mainly Sunni population.
To the west associated with Mosul, Islamic State fighters attacked Kurdish forces in the city
regarding Sinjar on Monday, the senior peshmerga source said. Nine peshmerga and 45 militants
had been killed inside the fighting, that began having a suicide vehicle bomb within the Nasr quarter
in the town.
Islamic State "want to show individuals they're able to even now attack and inflict losses about the
peshmerga", the origin said. Kurdish forces at present control about thirty percent with the town
associated with Sinjar, too as the hills for the north and furthermore the mountain overlooking it.
(Reporting through Dominic Evans; Editing through Mark Trevelyan)
Unrest, Conflicts & WarPolitics & GovernmentTikritQassem SoleimaniIraq