Vehicles carrying Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces patrol as smoke billows from an area controlled by jihadist militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria. (Karim Sahib/AFP/Getty Images)
BAGHDAD — Heavy shelling shook the militant stronghold of Tikrit on Sunday as Iraqi security forces attempted to recapture the town in an operation that marks a major test for the military as it tries to gain the upper hand against insurgents.
Ground forces backed by helicopter gunships launched a three-pronged pre-dawn attack Saturday, but residents and a tribal leader said militants from an al-Qaeda breakaway group had repelled the troops’ advance, rigging roads into Tikrit with explosives.
Residents said insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), who have been assisted by local anti-government groups, were still in control of the town center Sunday, despite state television claims that Iraqi forces had cleared Tikrit of militants.
With the ground attack repelled on three fronts, special forces who had airlifted into Tikrit University, setting up base at the nearby al Sahra airbase earlier in the week, attempted to break in from the northwest on Sunday, residents said.
Abu Ghaib, a 35-year-old Tikrit resident who chose to use a pseudonym for fear of reprisals, said there was intense helicopter fire and shelling Sunday in the area near university.
“What the people believe is that the army is advancing from the university,” he said. “But we don’t know for sure.”
The recapture of Tikrit, which is about 90 miles north of Baghdad and the home town of ousted president Saddam Hussein, would give a boost to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as he struggles to hold on to power in the face of a nearly three-week offensive by extremist fighters from ISIS. But a high-profile failure would deliver a deep blow to already disheartened forces.
“Some families have nowhere to flee to and they are quite terrified,” Abu Ghaib said. “The southern entrance to the city is like a ghost town, many have fled.”
With only helicopters and fixed propeller planes, Iraqi military officials have complained they lack the airpower to fight insurgents. On Sunday, the defense ministry took delivery of a Russian-made Sukhoi SU-25 fighter jet. It said five jets would enter service in the next three or four days.
Iraqi military officers have taken pains to stress that the initiative is now in their hands, following an extensive land grab by an insurgency that has boasted of mass executions in Tikrit.
On Saturday, police took journalists, accompanied by armed escorts, to the perimeters of western Baghdad to show that the capital is fully under their control.
“The animals are eating the corpses of ISIS,” Brig. Resan al-Brahimi, a federal police commander, told the assembled journalists. “The balance has shifted.”
Elite counterterrorism forces were also air-dropped into the nearby town of Siniyah and the oil refinery at Baiji in the days before the Tikrit offensive, according to Ammar Toma, a member of parliament’s defense and security committee. The newfound confidence has led to speculation that recently arrived U.S. advisers had helped plan the operations.
“There has certainly been a positive development in the conduct of the security forces, particularly the elite forces,” Toma said. “This has all happened after the arrival of U.S. consultants. Now it’s a case of wait and see.”
But the success of the new offensives is yet to be proved, and it is unclear whether Iraqi army forces — which have made up for mass desertions with rapid training of new recruits — will be able to hold retaken ground in areas where anti-government sentiment runs high.
At Baiji, counterterrorism forces appeared to have weathered the desertion of hundreds of Iraqi soldiers Monday night and regained control of the refinery, according to a senior North Oil Co. official, although militants still control the surrounding area, rendering the facility unusable. Security officials, meanwhile, said that the Mansuriya gas field, which militants attacked Friday, had been secured by special forces.
The Tikrit operation, which began when counterterrorism forces in four helicopters were air-dropped Thursday, appeared to run into difficulties from the outset. One helicopter was shot down and another suffered mechanical failure, residents said.
Since then, however, special forces have set up at the nearby al-Sahra air base, the former Speicher U.S. military base, according to a tribal leader from Tikrit who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons. He claimed that the crew of one of the helicopters — a Lebanese national and “two or three” Iraqis — had been taken hostage by ISIS.
With their special forces in place to the northwest, Iraqi troops launched an offensive from three directions — the main Baghdad highway to the south, a road from Samarra to the southeast and the Irbil road to the northwest — early Saturday, according to a version of events laid out by the tribal leader and three other local residents contacted by phone.
Most residents have fled Tikrit. Several who remained claimed government forces have used barrel bombs — explosives-packed drums that are notorious for causing high numbers of civilian casualties due to their inaccuracy.
It is not the first time Iraqi forces have been accused of dropping the makeshift munitions, a well-known tactic of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as he battles rebels across the border. New York-based Human Rights Watch last month accused the Iraqi government of using barrel bombs in Fallujah, in the western province of Anbar, where insurgents have continued to make gains.
On the media tour Saturday, Brahimi, the police commander, stopped near the border of Abu Ghraib, the city’s western gateway from Anbar. “The enemies say they are on the outskirts of Baghdad,” he declared. “Where are they?”
But Jabbar Abed, a 31-year-old carpenter who lives in Abu Ghraib, said the answer was: “Not far.”
“It’s a very bad situation,” he said. “Every one is scared they will take control. Every day there are clashes.”
Ben Van Heuvelen in Irbil and Abigail Hauslohner in Beirut contributed to this report.
Loveday Morris is a Beirut-based correspondent for The Post. She has previously covered the Middle East for The National, based in Abu Dhabi, and for the Independent, based in London and Beirut.
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