Iraqi Shiite fighters of the government-controlled Popular Mobilization units launch rockets toward Islamic state (IS) group's fighters holed up in the center of the city of Tikrit on Friday during a military operation to retake the city led from its western outskirt.  — AFP

 

BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces on Friday battled militants making what looked increasingly like a last stand in Tikrit but the self-declared Islamic State group responded by vowing to expand its “caliphate”.



Thousands of fighters surrounded a few hundred holdout IS militants, pounding their positions from the air but treading carefully to avoid the thousands of bombs littering the city center.



Two days after units spearheading Baghdad’s biggest anti-IS operation yet pushed deep into Tikrit, a police colonel claimed around 50 percent of the city was now back in government hands.



“We are surrounding the gunmen in the city center. We’re advancing slowly due to the great number of IEDs (improvised explosive devices),” he said on condition of anonymity.



“We estimate there are 10,000 IEDs in the city,” he said. Massively outnumbered, the militants’ defense consists of a network of booby traps, roadside bombs and snipers through which suicide attackers occasionally ram car bombs into enemy targets.



“Six soldiers were killed and 11 wounded in a suicide car bomb this morning in Al-Dyum neighbourhood” in western Tikrit, the colonel said. An army major confirmed the death toll. — AFP