Iraqi Army Starts Assault to Dislodge ISIL Militants
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Iraqi forces backed by helicopter gunships and tanks kicked off an offensive to retake Tikrit from Sunni militants, who seized the northern city after sweeping south from Mosul earlier this month.
As militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant took up positions around the city, Iraqi troops were joined by tribal forces, Jawad Al-Bolani, a security official, said in a phone interview yesterday from an operations command center in Salahuddin. Tikrit, about 150 kilometers (95 miles) north of Baghdad, is the hometown of ousted president Saddam Hussein, who was executed in 2006.