BAGHDAD — Iraqi soldiers and allied Shiite militiamen swept into the Islamic State-held city of Tikrit on Wednesday, launching a two-front offensive to squeeze extremists out of Saddam Hussein’s hometown. Explosions and heavy gunfire echoed through Tikrit, a key way station for Iraqi forces trying to expel the militants who hold roughly a third of the country. The offensive also will serve as a crucible for Iraqi forces, which collapsed under the extremists’ offensive last year and face street-by-street fighting in one of the Islamic State group’s biggest strongholds.
Allied Iraqi forces entered the city through its northern Qadisiyya neighborhood, according to video obtained by The Associated Press. Overhead, an attack helicopter fired missiles as soldiers and militiamen laid down heavy machine gunfire in the neighborhood’s dusty streets as downtown Tikrit loomed in the distance, black smoke rising overhead.
Officials quickly established a supply line through the neighborhood to reinforce troops, said Salahuddin police Brig. Kheyon Rasheed to the state-run Iraqiyya television. Authorities offered no immediate casualty figures, though Iran’s state-run Press TV satellite channel reported that a mortar attack wounded one of its cameramen there.
A local official in Iraq’s Salahuddin province confirmed that Iraqi troops entered Qadisiyya and raised the Iraqi flag over Tikrit’s general hospital. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists.
Later Wednesday, allied forces also swept into Tikrit from the south in a pincer movement to squeeze out militants, though some suggested many already fled in the face of the advance, code-named “At your service, prophet of Allah.”
“The terrorists are seizing the cars of civilians trying to leave the city and they are trying to make a getaway,” Rasheed said.
Tikrit, the capital of Salahuddin province, sits on the Tigris River about 80 miles north of Baghdad. Several of Hussein’s palaces remain there, as do remnants of his now-outlawed Baathist party. Many think party members assisted the Islamic State group in its offensive last summer.
After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, insurgent Baathists in Tikrit launched attacks on American forces. The same could happen to incoming Iraqi forces, who already faced sniper fire and heavily mined roads.
Taking Tikrit would open a supply line for a future operation to besiege Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city that remains under Islamic State control.
U.S. military officials have that said a mission to retake Mosul likely will begin in April or May and involve up to 25,000 Iraqi soldiers. The Americans have cautioned the offensive could be delayed.
Iranian military advisers have been helping guide Iraqi forces in their advance on Tikrit. Speaking Wednesday on Capitol Hill, U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey described the militias as “Iranian trained and somewhat Iranian equipped.”
Among those directing operations is Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force.
The U.S. says its allied coalition carrying out airstrikes targeting the extremists has not been involved in the Tikrit offensive.
Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has appealed for more aid for his country’s beleaguered ground forces, though the U.S. spent billions of dollars training and equipping Iraq’s army during its eight-year occupation.
