Iraq Begins Offensive to Recapture Tikrit From ISIS - New York Times

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi military, alongside thousands of Shiite militia fighters, began a large-scale offensive on Monday to retake the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State, a battle that could either deepen the country’s bloody sectarian divide or become a pivotal fight in the campaign to reclaim north and west Iraq.

Iraqi state television announced the beginning of the offensive Monday morning, a day after Haider al-Abadi, the Iraqi prime minister, visited the forces massed on Tikrit’s outskirts and delivered a speech in which he said “zero hour” for the liberation of Tikrit was at hand.

While visiting Samarra, a town near Tikrit, on Sunday, Mr. Abadi promised amnesty to local residents who had been forced to join the Islamic State, but said it was the “last chance for them” to lay down their arms and assist the security forces in pushing out the militants.

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It is not the first time the Iraqi military has sought to retake Tikrit in the months since the city, Saddam Hussein’s hometown and a Sunni stronghold, fell into militant hands last summer. On several occasions, the army and militias — sometimes in defiance of objections from American officials, who warned of a blood bath in the streets of Tikrit — have begun offensives, only to abort them shortly after.

But Monday’s attack, which officials said involved more than 30,000 fighters supported by Iraqi helicopters and jets, was the boldest effort yet to recapture Tikrit and, Iraqi officials said, the largest Iraqi offensive anywhere in the country since the Islamic State took control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, last June. It was unclear if airstrikes from the American-led coalition, which has been bombing Islamic State positions in Iraq since August, were involved in the early stages of the offensive on Monday.

From a military perspective, capturing Tikrit is seen as an important precursor to an operation to retake Mosul, which lies further north. Success in Tikrit could push up the timetable for a Mosul campaign, while failure would most likely mean more delays.

The American military, though, appears divided on the question of when the Iraqi military — which collapsed last summer in the face of the Islamic State onslaught — would be ready for a wide-scale offensive in Mosul, or in Anbar Province in the west of the country, which is also in the hands of militants.

In recent weeks, some American military officials have suggested that an offensive in Mosul could begin as early as April. But that angered Iraqi officials, who oppose having Americans dictate a timetable for the Iraqi military and object to publicizing any military plans. More recent news reports suggested that other American officials believe the Iraqi military is unprepared for a Mosul offensive so soon, and that one might not begin until the fall.

Even victory in Tikrit could come at a great cost, given the prominent role of Shiite militias, which are feared by the Sunni population. The militias are largely controlled by Iran, the region’s dominant Shiite power, and they could widen the country’s sectarian divide, especially if they carry out abuses, as they have done elsewhere.

The United States, in returning to a military role in Iraq, has pushed for reconciliation between Iraq’s Shiite-led government and the minority Sunnis, but there has been little progress. The United States has also insisted that Iraq establish Sunni fighting units to retake and hold Sunni areas, and warned against Shiite forces invading those areas.

Among the nearly 30,000 fighters involved in the Tikrit operation were an estimated 700 to 1,000 Sunni tribal fighters, according to Iraqi officials.

Some Iraqi officials have referred to the operation that began on Monday as revenge for the Shiite victims of a massacre last summer in Tikrit by the Islamic State, also called ISIS or ISIL, raising the likelihood of violent score-settling. In a gruesome tableau that was distributed in videos and photographs by ISIS, militants — possibly aided by local Sunni tribesmen — slaughtered more than 1,000 Shiite soldiers from a nearby military base, Camp Speicher.

Omar al-Jawoshy reported from Baghdad, and Tim Arango from Istanbul. Falih Hassan and Ahmed Saleh contributed reporting from Baghdad.

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