US Launches Airstrikes on Tikrit


A member of an Iraqi Shiite militant group called Imam Ali Brigades patrols in Tikrit, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, March 25, 2015.

VOA News
March 26, 2015 12:48 AM

Warplanes from a U.S.-led coalition launched airstrikes against Islamic State targets in the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday, after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi requested support for a month-old offensive to retake the strategic area.

Iraqi troops and Shi'ite militias have been battling on the ground, and had resisted asking for outside air support, but after quick gains outside Tikrit, the effort stalled.

U.S. Lt. Gen. James Terry, who commands the coalition effort, said the airstrikes will better enable the Iraqi forces to oust the militants.

"These strikes are intended to destroy ISIL strongholds with precision, thereby saving innocent Iraqi lives while minimizing collateral damage to infrastructure," he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

Tikrit is the capital of Salahuddin province, an area located between the capital, Baghdad, and Iraq's second largest city of Mosul that has been controlled by Islamic State fighters since June.

Prime Minister Abadi said in a televised speech to the Iraqi people late Wednesday that what he called the last phase of the operation to take back Salahuddin will succeed.

The U.S.-led coalition has carried out about 1,700 airstrikes in Iraq since August.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the bombings have had a "significant impact" on the Islamic State group, including killing thousands of the militants.

"The cumulative effect of these actions has been enormous," she said in a statement. "ISIL can no longer operate freely in roughly 25 percent of populated areas of Iraqi territory where they once could. Its momentum has been blunted, its ability to mass and maneuver forces degraded, its leadership cells eliminated or pressured, and its supply lines severed."

Iran has trained and armed Shi'ite militias who have been fighting alongside Iraqi forces against Islamic State in Tikrit, but U.S. officials have stressed that the U.S. is not coordinating any military action with the Iranians.

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