BAGHDAD, June 28 (agencies): Iraqi troops advanced towards Tikrit Saturday pounding insurgent positions in the city with air strikes in their biggest counter-offensive so far against jihadist-led Sunni militants.
A senior officer said the army was coordinating its efforts with the United States, which has deployed military advisers to help the government push back the militants who have overrun large areas of northern and north-central Iraq.
Armed US drones were flying over Baghdad to provide protection for the advisers and US diplomats against the militants, led by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is revered among Iraq's majority community, has urged political leaders to unite and form a new government within days to tackle the crisis.
International agencies have raised alarm bells over the humanitarian consequences of the fighting, with up to 10,000 people having fled a northern Christian town in recent days and 1.2 million displaced by unrest in Iraq this year.
Thousands of soldiers, backed by air cover, tanks and bomb disposal units, were advancing on Tikrit-now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein's hometown-which fell to insurgents on June 11.
"A large military operation started today to clear Tikrit of ISIL," Staff Lieutenant General Sabah Fatlawi told AFP.
Iraqi troops advance on Tikrit in biggest fightback yet
FE Team | Published: June 29, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
Share if you like