Iraqi forces pressed a counter-attack on Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit on Sunday as Russia delivered Sukhoi warplanes to aid Baghdad in what diplomats warn is an existential battle against Sunni militants.
Government planes pounded Tikrit with air strikes and clashes broke out across the city Sunday, witnesses said, as thousands of troops advanced in the most ambitious operation Iraqi forces have carried out since insurgents led by the jehadi Islamic State of Iraq and the levant (ISIl) overran swathes of five provinces weeks earlier.
World leaders, alarmed by the pace of the reverses in Iraq, have meanwhile urged a speeding up of Government formation following April elections, warning that the conflict, driven by sectarian divides, cannot be resolved militarily.
And while beleaguered Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has conceded that a political solution is necessary to end the crisis, his security spokesman has for days touted successes in the Tikrit operation that could be crucial not only tactically, but also for morale in the security forces. “The security forces are advancing from different areas” around Tikrit, lieutenant General Qassem Atta told reporters. “There are ongoing clashes.” Atta said that troops had detonated bombs planted along routes leading to the city, which fell to militants more than two weeks ago.
Witnesses in the city itself, meanwhile, reported waves of Government air strikes in various areas of central Tikrit and Saddam’s palace compound in the city. The Iraqi forces, according to Atta, are coordinating with recently-arrived US military advisers in “studying important targets.”
Meanwhile, a jehadi group in Syria has publicly executed and crucified nine men, eight of them rebels fighting both President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and the jehadists, a monitor said on Sunday.