Iraq’s Tikrit offensive stalled by Daesh bombs

SAMARRA, Iraq — Iraq's offensive to retake Tikrit from Daesh terror group was stalled Tuesday because of streets and buildings rigged with booby trap bombs and by the several hundred militants still holding out there.

Troops, police and militia fairly easily boxed the jihadists in over recent days, but mopping them up is proving to be far harder.

"The battle to retake Tikrit will be difficult because of the preparations [Daesh] made," said Jawwad Al Etlebawi, spokesman for Asaib Ahl Al Haq, a Shiite militia playing a major role in the operation.

"They planted bombs on all the streets, buildings, bridges, everything... Our forces were stopped by these defensive preparations," he told AFP.

"We need forces trained in urban warfare to break in," he said, adding that the jihadists are surrounded and that "any besieged person fights fiercely”.

The assault on Tikrit, capital of Salaheddin province, began on March 2.

Loyalists had already failed three times retake the city, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, which was captured by Daesh last summer.

Interior Minister Mohammed Ghabban said Monday the operation had been halted to avoid casualties and to protect infrastructure.

But it is unclear how anything other than an extended siege would achieve either of those objectives, unless there is additional external support, such as air strikes.

Staff Lieutenant General Abdulwahab Al Saadi, commander for Salaheddin, told AFP Sunday his forces in Tikrit needed air support from the US-led coalition.

He said he had asked the defence ministry to request air support, but that none had yet been forthcoming.

The longer the operation drags on, the longer civilians remaining in Tikrit will be caught in the middle.

Adnan Yunis, spokesman for the Red Crescent in Salaheddin, said only a maximum 20 per cent of Tikrit’s pre-conflict population is believed to remain in the city.

There are “no more than 30,000, probably quite a bit less,” he said.

“They are people who stayed because they do not have enough money to leave, they don’t have a car, they have a disability or because they chose to cooperate” with Daesh, Yunis said.

Daesh beheadings 

Iraq has formed paramilitary units dubbed the Popular Mobilisation forces to fight alongside security forces.

They are made up largely of Shiite militiamen but some Sunni Arabs have also taken part in fighting in the Tikrit area, which is overwhelmingly Sunni Arab.

Daesh posted pictures Tuesday of the beheading of four men it said were recruiters for the units.

The images show the men dressed in black kneeling in an empty street with knife-wielding militants standing behind them, after which they are pictured being beheaded.

Daesh has carried out numerous atrocities, including public beheadings and mass executions as well as enslavement and rape, and caused millions to be displaced.

It spearheaded a sweeping offensive that overran large areas north and west of Baghdad last June.

It also holds significant territory in neighbouring Syria, where it has taken advantage of the four-year uprising against President Bashar Assad, to oust government forces and rival rebel groups from a swathe of the east and north.