Agencies
KIRKUK (IRAQ), July 15: Iraqi security forces today advanced into militant-held Tikrit in an assault aimed at revitalising flagging efforts to retake the city, officials said.
Security forces began the attack this morning and have succeeded in retaking government facilities in the city's south. "Iraqi forces began a military operation to liberate the city of Tikrit and our forces were able to control the southern part of the city," Ahmed Abdullah Juburi, the governor of Salaheddin province of which Tikrit is the capital, told AFP. An army colonel said the police academy and a hospital had been retaken, and Juburi confirmed those facilities were in government hands, along with the governorate headquarters. |
