Tikrit Freed

From Yahoo:
"Iraq PM says Tikrit 'liberated' after month-long battle"

 

Iraq said security and allied forces backed by US-led coalition aircraft "liberated" the city of Tikrit on Tuesday, its biggest victory yet in the fight against Islamic State jihadists. The operation to retake the hometown of former president Saddam Hussein began on March 2 and had looked bogged down before Iraqi forces made rapid advances over the past 48 hours. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi "announces the liberation of Tikrit and congratulates Iraqi security forces and popular volunteers on the historic milestone," his official Twitter account said. He was referring to paramilitary groups which played a major role in the fighting to retake Tikrit, a Sunni Arab city which IS had controlled since it captured swathes of Iraq in June. Iraqiya state television showed footage of houses previously used by IS in liberated areas but it was not clear whether any pockets of resistance remained. The provincial government headquarters was retaken on Monday and on Tuesday the Iraqi tricolour replaced the black IS flag on the building. In a statement to AFP just minutes before Abadi's tweet, his spokesman Rafid Jaboori said: "Iraqi forces reached the centre of Tikrit, raised the Iraqi flag and are now clearing the city." Tikrit holds both strategic and symbolic importance. It was the hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, remnants of whose Baath party collaborated with IS last summer. Iraqi forces had since June tried and failed several times to retake the city, seen as a key stepping stone to recapturing Mosul, the jihadists' largest hub in Iraq.

 

^ It is surprising that the Iraqi military did this. I remember how ineffective they were in the First Iraq War, the Second Iraq War and after the US withdrew. It seems they got help from Iran which isn't good for us, but since the US and the other coalition forces think we can stop ISIS by merely bombing them I guess it was the only choice Iraq had. I think the bombings help to slow ISIS down, but they won't get defeated without wiping them out from the ground. That was clear with the Kurdish forces fighting them in Kolbani and now with the Iraqis in Tikrit. ^

 

http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-pm-declares-victory-tikrit-battle-150536021.html