Iraq

Iraqi media broadcast Tikrit operation

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The Iraqi media have broadcast the first footage of the country’s army operations to retake control of Tikrit University from Takfiri terrorists.

The footage showed Iraqi troops driving down the streets in the vicinity of the university, located in the northern city of Tikrit.

Heavy gunfire can be heard in the media footage as troops storm a university building and a soldier is later seen walking around with an Iraqi flag.

Soldiers, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, began the mission to retake the northern city from the militants of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Saturday.

According to Iraqi security officials on Sunday, Iraq’s government soldiers backed by thousands of volunteers gained the upper hand over the militants in Tikrit, flushing out the Takfiris from most parts of the capital city of the restive Salahuddin Province.

On June 10, the Takfiri militants gained control of Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s Nineveh Province, which was followed by the fall of Tikrit, located 140 kilometers (87 miles) northwest of Baghdad.

Over the past days, Iraqi armed forces have been engaged in fierce clashes with the ISIL terrorists, who have overrun parts of Iraq and announced a so-called Islamic caliphate.

Senior Muslim clerics have condemned the ISIL atrocities, including mass executions and rape.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has recently said Baghdad’s air and ground forces will turn the tide against the ISIL and its associated militant groups within days.

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