Iraqis resumed fighting against the Islamic State in Tikrit after a second day of U.S. airstrikes there, but questions remained as to whether all Iranian-backed fighters had left the area, a U.S. condition for the airstrikes.
About 4,000 Iraqi Security Forces, aided by several thousand members of the Popular Modernization Force — a group of Shi’a fighters who have pledged loyalty to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense — have begun maneuvering back into Tikrit to rout out several hundred Islamic State fighters there.
In testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday, U.S. Central Command commander Gen. Lloyd Austin said the precondition for U.S. airstrikes in Tikrit was that Shi’a militias who were loyal to Iran left the battlefield.
On Friday the Pentagon said while they were confident those conditions had been met, spokesman Col. Steve Warren admitted that it’s impossible to know, to have “100 percent visibility” that all of the remaining Shi’a militia had no Iranian ties.
As the Tikrit operation resumes, the U.S. continues to train the next generation of Iraqi Security Forces for the fight after Tikrit: taking on Islamic State fighters in Mosul. Warren said about 4,650 Iraqis are training at the sites and about 5,300 have graduated. In a briefing earlier this year, U.S. Central Command said it aims to have about 20,000-25,000 Iraqi Security Forces trained for the Mosul operation.
Those forces may be joined in Mosul by the Shi’a militias, Warren said. “The Popular Mobilization Force is a legitimate part of the Iraqi Security Forces apparatus,” he said. “So they will be used however the [Iraqi] Ministry of Defense decides.”
U.S. and coalition aircrafts have hit Islamic State targets in Tikrit about 20 times in the last two days, with the lion’s share of those strikes occurring on day one. But Warren cautioned against assuming the timeline on the Tikrit operations would be quick.
“Urban warfare is difficult. It is rough, hot, bloody, tiring, exhausting warfare,” Warren said. “No one should expect this to be an overnight thing.”
