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U.S. forces begin airstrikes in Tikrit, where Iran-backed militias are in lead U.S. forces begin airstrikes in Tikrit, where Iran-backed militias are in lead
(about 4 hours later)
BAGHDAD — The U.S.-led military coalition has begun airstrikes in the Iraqi city of Tikrit, officials said Wednesday, drawing the United States further into an operation dominated by Iranian-backed militiamen. BAGHDAD — U.S. warplanes began striking Islamic State forces in and around the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday, drawing the United States directly into a battle that has pitted the militants against Iraqi forces dominated by Iranian-backed militias.
The coalition has conducted airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria for more than six months, but U.S. officials see the offensive in Tikrit, the capital of Iraq’s Salahuddin province, as being complicated by the presence of Iranian advisers on the battlefield and the potential for civilian casualties. Pentagon officials said that the Iraqi government had requested the assistance as the stalled fight for Tikrit moved into its fourth week. They said initial targeting for the strikes will be aided by U.S.-led coalition surveillance aircraft that recently began overflying the city, 110 miles northwest of Baghdad.
A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the decision to begin airstrikes in Tikrit was based on a request from the Baghdad government. Officials said the U.S.-led coalition also recently began flying surveillance flights over the city and providing intelligence to Iraqi security forces in the area. The fight for Tikrit is considered a crucial test for larger future objectives, including Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which has been the symbol and center of Islamic State power in Iraq since the militants took it last summer.
Engaging in the battle for Tikrit further inserts the United States in an operation in which Iraqi army commanders admit they have little involvement. The offensive instead has been led by a plethora of Shiite militias and volunteer forces armed and financed by Iran. But the Tikrit operation is fraught with potential political and strategic complications for the Obama administration. The overwhelming presence of Shiite militias and volunteers armed and advised by Iran has given rise to fears that their victory would promote sectarian divisions and bloodletting in the majority-Sunni city. U.S. officials have estimated that these Shiite fighters outnumber official Iraqi security forces and Sunni tribal forces by about five to one in the battle.
[The military assault on Tikrit, in pictures] Powerful Sunni Arab states that are part of the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State, including Saudi Arabia, have warned against the growing regional power of Shiite Iran. In Washington, some lawmakers have charged that Obama is allowing Iran to expand its influence in Iraq to avoid undermining separate nuclear negotiations with Tehran whose deadline is next week.
Tikrit, about 110 miles northwest of Baghdad, is a critical test for Iraqi ground forces seeking to drive back the militants from their strongholds in northern Iraq. Tikrit is a gateway to the north and straddles the main highway to Mosul, a key city in the north, which is also under the control of the Islamic State. But U.S. officials, insisting the two issues are not linked, have said that victory over the Islamic State has to be the first order of business in Iraq and have indicated that they welcomed Iranian assistance there. Although U.S. aircraft that have bombed other parts of Iraq have stayed away from the area until now to avoid appearing to be aiding the ­Iranian-backed forces, the battlefield stasis in Tikrit apparently forced a change of heart.
The request for help from the international coalition highlights the limitations of the Iraqi forces. Baghdad had initially left the United States out of the planning for the Tikrit offensive, instead turning to the Iranian advisers to provide support. A Pentagon statement announcing the airstrikes repeatedly emphasized that they were “to support Iraqi Security Forces . . . after a request from the Iraqi Prime Minister, Haider al-Abadi.” Operations “to expel ISIL from the city,” it said, included “providing airstrikes, airborne intelligence capabilities, and advise and assist support to Iraqi Security Force headquarters elements.” The Islamic State is also know as ISIL and ISIS.
But after making an initial rapid advance across territory surrounding the city, the operation has stagnated for more than a week amid high casualties. A statement by Lt. Gen. James L. Terry, the coalition commander, said that “this will further enable Iraqi forces under Iraqi command to maneuver and defeat ISIL in the vicinity of Tikrit.”
In a televised address on Wednesday night, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the “hour of salvation” against the Islamic State had come. Lt. Col. Brian Fickel, a spokesman for Gen. Lloyd Austin III, head of the U.S. Central Command, said Iraqi security forces were in command of the Tikrit operation and that the United States and its allies were coordinating with those forces, not ­Iranian-backed paramilitaries.
“We will liberate each inch of Iraq,” Abadi said. “The victory of Iraq is being achieved by Iraqis, hero Iraqis. . . with support from friendly countries and the international coalition.” “We do not coordinate our operations in any way with Iran,” he said.
The Shiite militias leading the offensive — some of which fought U.S. troops during the Iraq war — have objected to assistance from Washington. The dispute further highlights the rifts between the Iraqi government and the array of armed groups fighting alongside its soldiers. A U.S. defense official said that American aircraft were involved in the Tikrit operation with at least two other countries that are part of the coalition operating inside Iraq. The coalition includes European allies and Canada and Australia.
Ryan reported from Washington. Mustafa Salim in Baghdad contributed to this report. The official, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the subject, said that initial targets were pre-set, rather than selected in response to on-the-fly communications with Iraqi security ­forces, but that the latter process would come as the campaign continued. Fewer than a dozen targets were likely to be hit in overnight sorties Wednesday and Thursday, the official said.
Abadi announced the new push for Tikrit in a televised address Wednesday night, saying that the city’s “hour of salvation” had come. He did not specifically mention coalition airstrikes, but he said, “We will liberate each inch of Iraq. The victory of Iraq is being achieved by Iraqis, hero Iraqis . . . with support from friendly countries and the international coalition.”
The decision to start airstrikes could be met with resistance from Shiite forces on the ground. Before the U.S. announcement was made, militia leaders — some of whom fought U.S. troops during the Iraq war — had already objected.
Iraq should not request air assistance around Tikrit because Iraqi army troops “don’t have any involvement” in the operation, said Hadi al-Amiri, leader of the Badr Organization, one of the Shiite groups that joined the fight along with Iraqi Shiite volunteers known as the Popular Mobilization Units.
“With all my respect to the army, the one who is doing the operation are the federal police and popular mobilization,” Amiri said in an interview in the city of Samarra, less than 40 miles from Tikrit. “They are now the real force.”
He complained that the presence of U.S. planes would force surveillance drones belonging to the militias out of the air, since there is no direct coordination, apart from through the Iraqi government, between the coalition and the Iranian-backed groups.
Brig. Gen. Abed al-Maliki, an Iraqi army commander in Samarra, conceded the military’s minor role in the Tikrit offensive. “The operation was started by the popular mobilizations and has continued” by them, he said. “They have better weapons and ammunition than us; they have more support.”
After making an initial rapid advance across territory surrounding militant-held Tikrit that led to the issuance of triumphant reports of victory, the Iraqi offensive has been stalled for more than a week amid high casualties. If Iraqi forces cannot operate efficiently in capturing Tikrit, the all-important battle for Mosul is likely to be postponed.
In recent congressional testimony, when it appeared the Iraqis were on the verge of taking Tikrit, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said U.S. officials were watching carefully to see how the Shiite militia forces would treat Sunni residents returning to the city. In the Sunni-dominated western part of Iraq, tribal leaders have been hesitant to turn against the Islamic State because of fear the militants would be replaced by Shiites in both the militias and the Iraqi military.
Human rights groups in recent days have documented the Shiite pursuit of a scorched earth policy in areas already liberated from the Islamic State. After U.S. airstrikes drove the militants out of the town of Amerli, in northeastern Iraq, late last summer, the militias went on a sectarian rampage, burning and bulldozing thousands of homes and other buildings in dozens of Sunni villages.
DeYoung and Ryan reported from Washington. Mustafa Salim in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Read more:Read more:
Tikrit battle is not over yet, Pentagon warnsTikrit battle is not over yet, Pentagon warns
Iraqi offensive for Tikrit stalls as casualties mountIraqi offensive for Tikrit stalls as casualties mount
U.S.-backed Iraqi forces face risky urban warfare in battle against Islamic StateU.S.-backed Iraqi forces face risky urban warfare in battle against Islamic State