Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi walked through the center of Tikrit Wednesday waving the Iraqi flag and congratulating his forces in a much-needed victory against the Islamic State.
Iraqi Security Forces, with the support of U.S. and coalition airstrikes and thousands of Shi’a militias retook Tikrit late Tuesday. The city, which was the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, was Iraq’s first major counteroffensive against the Islamic State since the terrorist organization began taking over wide swaths of Iraq last summer.
Al-Abadi praised the victory on social media Wednesday, saying this is the beginning of a new chapter and begins Iraq’s eradication of the violent organization that spread mostly unchallenged through the northern central portion of Iraq for months.
“We will raise the Iraqi flag in Anbar, Nineveh and every spot usurped our land of the pure, with the help of God Almighty,” al-Abadi said.
Tikrit is located about halfway between Baghdad and Mosul, which has turned into the headquarters for the Islamic State since it was captured from a fleeing Iraqi Army last summer. Based on the latest information available from Department of Defense, about 1,000 to 2,000 Islamic State fighters are based in Mosul.
For the last several months, about 3,000 U.S. troops have returned to Iraq to help the Iraqi Army rebuild and prepare for battle in Mosul. A Mosul offensive had initially been planned for late spring, but timing of training all the troops needed, and the increased involvement of Iranian-backed militias to assist Iraq in a Tikrit fight pushed those plans back.
