Iraqi forces on Friday battled jehadists making what looked increasingly like a last stand in Tikrit but the Islamic State group responded by vowing to expand its “caliphate”. Fighters surrounded a few hundred holdout IS militants, pounding their positions from the air but treading carefully to avoid the thousands of bombs littering the city centre.
Two days after units spearheading Baghdad’s biggest anti-IS operation yet pushed deep into Tikrit, a police colonel claimed around 50 percent of the city was now back in government hands. “We are surrounding the gunmen in the city centre. We’re advancing slowly due to the great number of IEDs (improvised explosive devices),” he said. “We estimate there are 10,000 IEDs in the city,” he said. Massively outnumbered, the jihadists’ defence consists of a network of booby traps, roadside bombs and snipers through which suicide attackers occasionally ram car bombs into enemy targets.
Syria Kurds urge US-led strikes as IS forces mass
Syrian Kurdish fighters urged the US-led coalition on Friday to launch new airstrikes on the Islamic State group as the jehadists brought in reinforcements for an attack in the northeast. The Kurdish People's Protection Units called on the coalition to carry out raids to prevent IS from seizing the key town of Tal Tamr in Hasakeh province. "We call on the international coalition forces to take part in the battle for Tal Tamr," a statement said, adding that the US-led grouping had yet to carry out strikes in the area.