| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| Iraq Troops Advance on Tikrit in Biggest Fightback Yet |
| 2014-06-29 |
| [AnNahar] Iraqi troops advanced towards Tikrit on Saturday pounding Death Eater positions in the city with air strikes in their biggest counter-offensive so far against jihadist-led Sunni murderous Moslems. 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 turbans who have overrun large areas of northern and north-central Iraq. Armed U.S. drones were flying over Storied Baghdad to provide protection for the advisers and U.S. diplomats against the murderous Moslems, led by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant ... the current version of al-Qaeda in Iraq, just as blood-thirsty and well-beloved as the original... (ISIL). Top Shiite holy man Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is revered among Iraq's majority community, has urged politicians 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 bully boyz on June 11. "A large military operation started today to clear Tikrit of ISIL," Staff Lieutenant General Sabah Fatlawi told Agence La Belle France Presse. "ISIL fighters now have two choices -- flee or be killed," he boasted. On Thursday, troops swooped into a strategically located university campus in the city by helicopter, with sporadic festivities reported throughout Friday. Taking the university is seen as an important step towards regaining control of Tikrit, one of the biggest cities controlled by the murderous Moslems. Iraqi forces were carrying out air strikes against bully boyz inside the city, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's security front man said. They were also now in full control of a key road from Storied Baghdad to Samarra, between the capital and Tikrit, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta added. There is coordination with the U.S. "in the field of studying important targets," Atta said, without providing further details. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |