Iraqi forces clash with militants in northern city
Source: AP-Excite
By SINAN SALAHEDDIN and SAMEER N. YACOUB
BAGHDAD (AP) Iraqi helicopter gunships struck suspected insurgent positions in Tikrit on Sunday as part of a government offensive to retake the northern city from Sunni militants led by the al-Qaida breakaway Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, residents and officials said.
The Iraqi military launched its push to wrest back Tikrit, the hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein, on Saturday with a multi-pronged assault spearheaded by ground troops backed by tanks and helicopters. Security officials said the army is coordinating its campaign with the United States.
The predominantly Sunni city, a hotbed of antipathy toward Iraq's Shiite-led government, is one of two major urban centers that fell to insurgents earlier this month during their lightning offensive across the country's north and west.
The insurgents appeared to have repelled the military's initial push for Tikrit, and remained in control of the city on Sunday, but clashes were taking place in the northern neighborhood of Qadissiyah, two residents reached by telephone said.
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This Saturday, June 28, 2014 photo, shows the Iraqi army being deployed outside a village near Dallah Abbas north of Baqouba, the capital of Iraq's Diyala province, 35 miles (60 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad, Iraq. The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant which already controls vast swaths in northern and eastern Syria amid the chaos of that nation's civil war, aims to erase the borders of the modern Middle East and impose its strict brand of Shariah law. (AP Photo)