Badr Organization Chief: US No Partner in Tikrit Operations

Hadi al-Ameri, the secretary-general of the powerful Badr Organization, underlined that the US has played no role in Iraq’s battle against ISIL in Tikrit, Salahuddin province.

“The international coalition (led by the US) didn’t have any partnership in the operations to free Salahuddin at all and it was merely the army and the popular (volunteer) forces which are in the battlefield in the province,” Ameri told FNA on Sunday.

He also referred to the United States’ suspicious pressures on Baghdad to launch the operations for the liberation of Mosul and his country’s reservations in this regard, and stressed, “It is only Baghdad that is vested with the authority to decide the date and method for liberating Mosul.”

Ameri vowed that the Iraqi forces chase the ISIL members even outside the country’s borders to annihilate them completely.

He referred to the Iraqi army and popular forces’ battlefield victories, and said, “We have made advances from Diyala and Abu Talheh towards Hamrin and other forces have also advanced to Jasr al-Zarkeh.”

Noting that weak resistance is seen by the ISIL terrorists, Ameri said it is the first time that brave tribal people from the freed areas are cooperating with the Iraqi army and popular forces against the ISIL.

The Iraqi army, backed by volunteer forces, is tightening its grip on the ISIL terrorists in its fight to liberate the city of Tikrit in Salahuddin province.

The Iraqi army has so far retaken several neighborhoods and is moving forward to completely cleanse the city from the terrorists.