Tikrit Archives

Iraq exhumes 470 bodies from Tikrit mass graves

May 28, 2015 By administrator

Iraq has exhumed the remains of 470 people believed to have been executed by militants near Tikrit last year in what is known as the Speicher massacre, the health minister said Thursday, AFP reports.

“We have exhumed the bodies of 470 Speicher martyrs from burial sites in Tikrit,” Adila Hammoud said at a press conference in Baghdad, referring to the nearby military base that the massacre was named after.

In June 2014, armed men belonging or allied to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group abducted hundreds of young, mostly Shi’ite recruits from Speicher base, just outside the city of Tikrit.

They were then lined up in several locations and executed one by one, as shown in pictures and footage that has emerged since.

Source: Panorama.a

Iraqi forces liberate Tikrit center from ISIL hold

March 11, 2015 By administrator

Iraqi armed forced, backed by volunteer and tribal fighters, have liberated central parts of the Iraqi city of Tikrit with major government buildings now retaken from ISIL Takfiri militants.

A statement by Iraq’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday said major government buildings close to the city’s center have been retaken from ISIL terrorists.

Security officials said most of the ISIL militants in the city have begun retreating. report presstv

The advances on Wednesday came after nearly a week of heavy fighting for the liberation of the city, around 160 kilometers north of the capital Baghdad. Tikrit was one of the two major strongholds of ISIL in Iraq, the other being Mosul.

Iraqi forces managed to retake Tikrit’s military hospital located in al-Qadisiya neighborhood earlier in the day. A mop-up operation was launched to hunt down ISIL militants scattered across the city.

The operation includes a combined force of more than 30,000 fighters both from the Iraqi armed forces and volunteers, known as Popular Mobilization forces. It is the largest operation launched by the government to date and many see it as a prelude to recapturing the northern city of Mosul.

The operation is being assisted by Iranian military advisers who have made a huge contribution to similar offensives against the Takfiri militants. The US-led international coalition against ISIL has no role to play in the operation to retake Tikrit, although Iraqi officials have announced they would use the support of coalition airstrikes in the battle for Mosul.

Takfiris hemmed in

Speaking from near Tikrit, Press TV’s correspondent said fierce clashes are continuing between the terrorists and Iraqi forces, especially in the western parts of the city, where militants have a stronger presence.

The army’s advance in southern parts of the city has been faster, while other units are tightening the noose around the militants from the northern axis.

The Press TV reporter said the battle to liberate the entire city will not be an easy one as the ISIL militants are putting up a strong fight against Iraqi forces.

The operation to retake Tikrit began from four directions and the army tried to besiege the militants and cut off their supply lines. However, reports showed that the militants have managed to destroy a bridge east of the city, holding off the army’s advance on that front.

The Iraqis have all left the city, which is under the complete siege of the Iraqi army and volunteer forces.

“Tikrit has effectively become a prison for ISIL militants,” the Press TV correspondent said. The liberation of the hospital was a major gain for the Iraqi forces as the site was used by militants as a place to hold captive citizens.

ISIS destroys 7th Century Church in Tikrit, Iraq

September 26, 2014 By administrator

Tikrit (IraqiNews.com) On Thursday, according to a security source in Salahuddin province, ISIS elements blew up the Green Church, which is considered to be one of the oldest Christian churches in the Middle East, in the center of Tikrit (170 km north of Baghdad). The Church was built in the 7th century and belonged to the Assyrian Church of the East.

The source said in an interview for IraqiNews.com that “yesterday evening, the militants of ISIS bombed the Green Church in the area of the presidential palaces, with improvised explosive devices that were planted in its surroundings.”

The source, who asked not to be named, added that: “The bombing resulted in the destruction of the entire church.”

ISIS has destroyed churches, religious shrines and mosques in the provinces of Kirkuk and Nineveh, including the tombs of the prophets Jonah, George, Daniel as well as a number of ancient churches in the provinces of Salahuddin and Nineveh. In Mosul ISIS has destroyed or occupied all 45 Christian religious institutions

Iraqi forces launch operation to free Tikrit from IS

August 19, 2014 By administrator

Iraq’s armed forces have attacked Tikrit in a renewed bid to free the city from the Islamic State (IS) group. Meanwhile, the UN has announced emergency aid for those fleeing violence in the country.

Iraqi forces, supported by Shiite volunteer militiamen, planned to attack the jihadist group’s militants from three different points in Tikrit’s south and west, security officials said.

Reuters news agency quoted an army major and a police captain as saying the government forces were advancing rapidly from the south but that they were slowed down by landmines, roadside bombs and IS snipers.

Tikrit, located 140 kilometers (87 miles) northwest of the capital, Baghdad, on the banks of the river Tigris, is the hometown of executed former dictator, Saddam Hussein.

The city was taken by jihadist fighters on June 11, and has been controlled since then mostly by Sunni militant groups, including former members of Saddam’s ruling Baath party.

Two previous attempts to retake the city have failed.

Strategic recapture

The new offensive comes after Iraqi and Kurdish forces seized the strategic Mosul Dam and some villages around it earlier on Monday. They were supported by US fighter jets and drones that launched 15 airstrikes near the area.

IS militants had seized control of the Mosul Dam on August 7, giving them control of major power and water reserves and putting them in a position from where they could deny supplies to the rest of the country.

Following the capturing of Mosul Dam, US President Barack Obama said that the airstrikes were part of a long-term plan to defeat the IS.

“We will continue to pursue a long-term strategy to turn the tide against IS by supporting the new Iraqi government and working with key partners in the region,” he said.

This was the first time Washington intervened in Iraq after it withdrew its troops in 2011.

Emergency aid announced

The UN refugee agency has meanwhile mounted a massive aid effort to help nearly 500,000 Iraqis fleeing IS militants. UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told Reuters: “Barring last-minute delays, an air, road and sea operation will begin tomorrow, startng with a four-day airlift using Boeing 747s from Aqaba in Jordan to Irbil, followed by road convoys from Turkey and Jordan, and sea and land shipments from Dubai via Iran over the next 10 days.”

Initial supplies include 3,000 tents, 200,000 plastic sheets, kitchen sets and jerry cans. Edwards said that the aid coming from outside would help to meet the needs of the most vulnerable people. “This is a major humanitarian crisis and disaster and it continues to affect very large numbers of people,” Edwards insisted.

The UNHCR estimates that nearly 1.2 million people have fled their homes across Iraq this year. Around 200,000 are temporarily living in Iraq’s Kurdistan region. Those fleeing the IS include minority communities such as the Yazidis, who are being persecuted by the IS.

The IS is a splinter group of the al- Qaeda network. The organization’s Sunni members profess an orthodox version of Islam and rule of the Sharia law. The group seized large swathes of Iraq in June this year and is determined to establish an Islamic “caliphate” in the region.

mg/tj (dpa, Reuters)

Iraqi army retakes Tikrit

June 12, 2014 By administrator

12 June 2014 – 6:34pm

The Iraqi military has freed the town of Tikrit, situated 140 km from Baghdad, from extremists, ITAR-TASS cites General Ali al-Freidji, who commands the operation in the Salah-ed-Din province of the country.

update: Militants overrun Iraqi city Tikrit

June 11, 2014 By administrator

Multiple reports from Iraq say that Islamist militants have overrun the central city of Tikrit. It would be the second city to fall into insurgent hands in as many days.

Insurgents from the jihadist Islamist State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took control of Tikrit on Wednesday afternoon, according to independent news site Alsumaria News and other sources.

Tikrit is 150 kilometers (95 miles) north of Baghdad, and the hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein.

The development comes after insurgents seized the Turkish consulate in the northern city of Mosulearlier on Wednesday, and kidnapped diplomatic staff.

Members of ISIS, a thriving breakaway Islamist militant group, took control of Mosul, Iraq’s second biggest city, in a show of strength against Iraq’s Shiite-led government. Half a million people arereported to have fled Mosul.

Turkish media are reporting that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has gathered officials for an emergency meeting to discuss the consulate seizure.

The group’s assault in Mosul saw black banner-waving insurgents raid government buildings, push out security forces and capture military vehicles. They also abducted more than two dozen Turkish truck drivers who were delivering diesel to a power plant in Mosul.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for the release of the diplomats.

“No such attack on diplomatic officers and civilians can be justified under any circumstances or under any reason,” Ban said.

The militants have also pushed on to the northern oil refinery town of Biji, with officials reporting the setting alight of its court building and police station overnight.

It’s believed insurgents had warned police and soldiers ahead of time not to challenge them as they approached Biji.

News agency Reuters reported that NATO ambassadors held an emergency meeting on Wednesday on the situation in Iraq, at Turkey’s request.

‘Plan to restore security’

Authorities back in Mosul are determined to recapture the city.

“Mosul is capable of getting back on its feet and getting rid of all the outsiders … and we have a plan to restore security,” said Atheel al-Nujaifi, the governor of Ninevah province, of which Mosul is the capital.

“We have taken practical steps in order to restore order … by mobilizing people into public committees that would retake the city.”

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the government in Baghdad would work with the semi-autonomous regional government of Kurdistan to defeat the Islamists. The Iraqi parliament was set to meet on Thursday to discuss a state of emergency that might give Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki greater powers in tackling the growing insurgency.

ISIS has controlled the city of Fallujah for the past five months and on Tuesday claimed control of Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul. It has also taken advantage of the civil war in neighboring Syria to gain a foothold there, where it is seen by some as the most capable of those forces fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

The group is believed to be fighting to establish an Islamist emirate that would straddle Syria and Iraq.

jr/dr (Reuters, AFP)