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 Shia 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 advance. "They are using urban warfare and snipers, so we are advancing in a cautious and delicate way, and we need more time," a lieutenant general on the ground told AFP. Iraqi forces are moving on Tikrit from three directions, with units targeting the towns of Al-Alam and Ad-Dawr to the north and south, while another large contingent drives on the city from the east.
"We are close to Ad-Dawr, but Daesh is still in the centre," the senior officer said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. Units were also moving from a variety of other directions, with military sources saying the plan was encircle IS fighters in Tikrit and besiege them. The jihadist group announced in a radio bulletin Tuesday that a US national from its ranks had carried out a suicide attack against Iraqi forces near Samarra, the other main city in Salaheddin province.
The attacker was referred to by his nom de guerre, Abu Dawud al-Amriki. The group released a picture purportedly of him wearing a mask that only reveals a pair of dark eyes. The operation, the government's largest since it started attempting to regain the ground it lost to jihadists last summer, was announced on Sunday by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. Both Iraqi and Iranian media said Qassem Soleimani - the commander of the Al Quds Force covert operations unit of Tehran's elite Revolutionary Guards - was in Salaheddin province to help co-ordinate operations.
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