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 Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, who has helped
coordinate Baghdad's counter-attacks against Islamic State since it
seized much of northern Iraq in June, was overseeing at least part
of the operation, witnesses told Reuters.
His presence on the frontline highlights neighboring Iran's
influence over the Shi'ite fighters who have been key to containing
the militants in Iraq.
In contrast the U.S.-led air coalition which has been attacking
Islamic State across Iraq and Syria has not yet played a role in
Tikrit, the Pentagon said on Monday, perhaps in part because of the
high-level Iranian presence.
Iraqi military officials said security forces backed by the Shi'ite
militia known as Hashid Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation) units were
advancing gradually, their progress slowed by roadside bombs and
snipers.
They have yet to enter Tikrit, best known as the hometown of
executed former president Saddam Hussein, or the nearby Tigris river
town of al-Dour, which officials describe as a major center for the
Islamic State fighters.
On the southern flank of the offensive, army and police officials
said government forces moving north from the city of Samarra could
launch an attack on al-Dour later on Tuesday.
Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, was
directing operations on the eastern flank from a village about 55 km
(35 miles) from Tikrit called Albu Rayash, captured from Islamic
State two days ago.
With him were two Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitary leaders: the leader of
the Hashid Shaabi, Abu Mahdi al-Mohandis, and Hadi al-Amiri who
leads the Badr Organisation, a powerful Shi'ite militia.
"(Soleimani) was standing on top of a hill pointing with his hands
toward the areas where Islamic State are still operating," said a
witness who was accompanying security forces near Albu Rayash.
PUSHING BACK
The offensive is the biggest military operation in the Salahuddin
region north of Baghdad since last summer, when Islamic State
fighters killed hundreds of Iraq army soldiers who had abandoned
their military base at Camp Speicher outside Tikrit.
Several Shi'ite Hashid Shaabi fighters have described this week's
campaign as revenge for the Speicher killings. Prime Minister Haider
al-Abadi has urged them to protect civilians in Salahuddin, a mainly
Sunni Muslim province.
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The drive follows several failed attempts to push the militants out
of Tikrit. Since Islamic State declared a caliphate last year in
territories under its control in Iraq and Syria, Iraqi forces have
not managed to recapture and control a single city.
But months of U.S.-led air strikes, backed up by the Shi'ite
militias, Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Iraqi soldiers, have
contained Islamic State in Iraq and pushed it back from around
Baghdad, the Kurdish north, and the eastern province of Diyala.
The Tikrit battle will have a major impact on plans to move further
north and recapture Mosul, the largest city under Islamic State
rule.
If the offensive stalls, it will complicate and delay a move on
Mosul. A quick victory would give Baghdad momentum, but any
retribution against local Sunnis would imperil efforts to win over
Mosul's mainly Sunni population.
To the west of Mosul, Islamic State fighters attacked Kurdish forces
in the town of Sinjar on Monday, a senior peshmerga source said.
Nine peshmerga and 45 militants were killed in the fighting, which
began with a suicide car bomb in the Nasr quarter of the town.
Islamic State "want to show people they can still attack and inflict
losses on the peshmerga", the source said. Kurdish forces currently
control around 30 percent of the town of Sinjar, as well as the
hills to the north and the mountain overlooking it.
(Reporting by Dominic Evans; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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