Iraqi Official: ISIL Booby-Trapping Entire City of Tikrit

Senior member of the Iraqi National Alliance Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said the Takfiri terrorists have planted bombs and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) throughout the city of Tikrit, the provincial capital of Salahuddin province.

“The ISIL has turned Tikrit into a booby-trapped city on the verge of blast,” al-Rubaie, also a former Iraqi national security advisor, said on Monday.

The Iraqi army backed by popular forces started a fresh round of military operations to liberate Tikrit last Sunday.

Al-Rubaie also said that ISIL snipers have taken positions throughout the city.

Al-Rubaie pointed to the advances of the Iraqi army and popular forces in Salahuddin province, and said, “The advances made by the Iraqi security forces against the ISIL in Salahuddin are tactical victories that will pave the way for final victory in liberating Tikrit.”

On Monday, the Iraqi army backed by popular forces marched all the way to Tikrit in Salahuddin province and are now standing at the gates of the city.

After one week of heavy fighting with ISIL terrorists, the Iraqi forces have now opened their path into Tikrit, Al-Araqieh news website reported today.

The Iraqi army also continued its advances in the two towns of al-Alam and al-Dour near Tikrit in Salahuddin province, and claimed the lives of dozens of the terrorists in there.

“We are trying to surround ISIL inside al-Alam and al-Dour and cut all supply routes for them,” al-Alam mayor Laith al-Jubouri said on Sunday.

Army and militia fighters entered the Southern and Eastern parts of al-Dour on Friday.

According to reports on Saturday, the Iraqi soldiers inflicted hefty losses on the ISIL terrorists in the village of Kuwaishat in Fallujah, as the army continued its huge offensive towards Tikrit.

The ISIL terrorists escaped the village and left their weapons and vehicles behind.

Thousands of government troops, Shiite and Sunni popular forces have started a major offensive in the Iraqi city of Samarra to oust the ISIL terrorists from the strategic province of Salahuddin, which includes the ancient city of Tikrit.