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U.S. Air Raids Struck ISIS in Tikrit for Over 8 Hours, Iraqi Military Leaders Say 3 Shiite Militias Quit Iraqi Siege of ISIS Over U.S. Air Role
(about 4 hours later)
AL RASHID AIR BASE, Iraq — Iraqi military leaders said that American-led air raids pummeled Islamic State positions in Tikrit for eight and a half hours, subsiding only at dawn on Thursday, when the Iraqi military’s handful of Russian-made fighters took over. AL RASHID AIR BASE, Iraq — Three major Shiite militia groups pulled out of the fight for Tikrit on Thursday, immediately depriving the Iraqi government of thousands of their fighters on the ground even as American warplanes readied for an expected second day of airstrikes against the Islamic State there.
Apparently eager to claim some share of the credit for their role in bombing the extremists, Iraqi officials brought journalists on a visit to the Al Rashid Air Base, on the southeastern edge of Baghdad, as a squadron of five Iraqi Sukhoi-25 fighter bombers landed and took off on what officials said were bombing runs over Tikrit. The militia groups, some of which until recently had Iranian advisers with them, pulled out of the Tikrit fight in protest of the American military airstrikes, which began late Wednesday night, insisting that the Americans were not needed to defeat the extremists in Tikrit.
Iraqi officials in the Tikrit area said later that they were unaware of any Iraqi raids on Thursday. Together the three groups represent as much as a third of the 30,000 fighters on the government side in the offensive against the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL, analysts said.
By 10 a.m. Thursday, the Iraqi jets had carried out four waves of attacks, consisting of up to five jets each from this base, taking over from the American bombers in the coalition, according to Staff Gen. Anwer Hamad, the commander of the Iraqi Air Force. General Hamad said that American bombers had carried out a classified number of airstrikes, which he described as “intensive” and “many in number,” from 10 p.m. Wednesday until 6:30 a.m. Thursday. “We don’t trust the American-led coalition in combating ISIS,” said Naeem al-Uboudi, the spokesman for Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the three groups which said they would withdraw from the front line around Tikrit. “In the past they have targeted our security forces and dropped aid to ISIS by mistake,” he said.
He said that for operational reasons, American aircraft would concentrate on night raids, and the Iraqis would continue their daytime assaults. One of the leaders of the biggest militias in the fight, the Badr Organization, also criticized the American role and said his group, too, might pull out. “We don’t need the American-led coalition to participate in Tikrit. Tikrit is an easy battle, we can win it ourselves,” said Mueen al-Kadhumi, who is one of the Shiite militia group’s top commanders.
“Their role in this fighting is very important to us,” he said. “They have a high number of aircraft, and they have good capabilities. They can really help us.” “We have not yet decided if we will pull out or not,” he said. The Badr Brigade’s leader, Hadi al-Ameri, was shown on Iraqi Television leading the ground fight in Tikrit on Thursday.
While the Americans and their coalition partners have hundreds of aircraft at their disposal, the Iraqi Air Force has about a dozen of the Russian-made Sukhoi-25s. The American airstrikes began late Wednesday night, and continued for eight and a half hours, subsiding at dawn on Thursday, when Iraq’s handful of Russian-made fighter jets took over from this base on the outskirts of Baghdad and further bombed Tikrit in a succession of daytime raids.
Visiting the base and posing in the cockpit of a Sukhoi-25 between assaults, Khaled al-Obeidi, the defense minister, said the combined operation would make quick work of the insurgents remaining in Tikrit. Some had already been seen fleeing, he said. Before starting the airstrikes, American officials demanded that Iranian officials and the militias closest to them to stand aside while other Iraqi forces went in to drive out the last militants in the city.
“We cannot tell when the battles will end, because we always have to prepare for the worst on the battlefield,” Mr. Obeidi said. “But we expect that the battle will be settled soon, and after the liberation of Tikrit, we will advance to the north and west.” But a pullout by those militias, especially by the Badr Organization, would effectively disband the largest and most effective ground force the Iraqi government has been able to field since the invasion by ISIS last year.
Iraqi forces had launched their offensive to retake Tikrit, a strategic crossroads in the heart of Sunni territory in central Iraq, on March 2, boasting that they would subdue the town within a few days, and that they would do so without help from the American-led coalition. The other groups that announced they would boycott the Tikrit operation were Qatab Hizbullah, which like Ashaib Ahl al-Haq is closely aligned and supported by Iran, and the Peace Brigade, the latest name for a militia made of up followers of the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, previously known as the Mahdi Army.
Iraq’s popular mobilization forces, predominantly Shiite militiamen, made up the bulk of the 30,000 Iraqi forces attacking Tikrit, under the tutelage of Iranian advisers on the ground. They proved unable to dislodge remaining Islamic State defenders, however, who were said to number only in the hundreds, and they announced that the advance was going to pause to protect lives and property. Hakim al-Zamily, one of the leaders of the Sadr group, said his group had warned it would pull out of the Tikrit fight if the Americans were brought in. “We don’t trust the Americans, they have targeted our forces many times in so-called mistakes,” he said.
That pause gave time for Iranian advisers to pull back from the fighting on Sunday, allaying American fears that if they launched airstrikes against Tikrit, they would seem to be providing air support to Iranian-led militias, rather than to regular Iraqi military units. Mr. Sadr, whose troops fought bitter battles against the Americans during much of the Iraq war, said his group was pulling out because, in his words, “the participation of the so-called international alliance is to protect ISIS, on the one hand, and to confiscate the achievements of the Iraqis, on the other hand.”
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally requested that the United States join the offensive against Tikrit with airstrikes. President Obama authorized the strikes the same day, but it was clear that planning for them by the American military was well advanced. They began within hours of the president’s order. Since March 2, Islamic State forces in Tikrit have been under attack by the Iraqi militias, collectively known as the Popular Mobilization Committees, and regular Iraqi military forces, together numbering more than 30,000 fighters. The great majority of the fighters were members of the militias. Some of those fighters, particularly followers of the Badr Organization, which is closely identified with the Iraqi government’s leaders, have so far remained in the fight.
The American-led military coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, since last summer in Kurdistan and around Mosul in northern Iraq, as well as in Syria, but it had not previously joined the Tikrit offensive. Still, a much smaller force of Islamic State fighters has been able to hold them off in a few areas of the city for almost four weeks. In recent days, despite the claims of self-sufficiency made by militia commanders, Iraqi military officials said American airstrikes were needed to break the deadlock.
The coalition has advisers and trainers in Iraq, but unlike the Iranians, it has not, so far as is known, sent them to front-line positions with Iraqi ground forces. That is at least in part because those forces have been dominated by militiamen in the wake of last summer’s near collapse of the regular Iraqi Army. The militias who were withdrawing did not say they were quitting their positions in the Tikrit area altogether, or in adjoining areas of Salahuddin Province, just returning to their nearby bases and boycotting the front-line advance.
A news release issued by the American military command late Wednesday said that “Iraqi security forces have ISIL in Tikrit encircled.” By 10 a.m. Thursday, the Iraqi jets had carried out four waves of attacks on Tikrit, consisting of up to five jets each from this base, taking over from the American bombers in the coalition.
“Renewed efforts on the ground supported by the coalition are aimed at dislodging ISIL fighting elements from Tikrit and once again placing the town under the government of Iraq control,” it said. As the Tikrit operation continued through Thursday, Staff Gen. Anwer Hamid, the commander of the Iraqi Air Force, said that for operational reasons, American aircraft would concentrate on night bombing runs, and the Iraqis would continue their daytime sorties.
A reporter, on the outskirts of Tikrit, described an unusually heavy bombardment from Wednesday night until dawn on Thursday. “Their role in this fighting is very important to us,” he said. “They have a high number of aircraft and they have good capabilities, they can really help us,” he said.
The deputy governor of Salahuddin Province, Ammar Hikmat, said that the coalition had carried out 180 airstrikes during the first night of bombing. While the Americans and their coalition partners have hundreds of aircraft at their disposal, the Iraqi Air Force mainly has a dozen Russian-made Sukhoi-25 jet bombers.
Both the journalist and the mayor of Tikrit, Omar al-Tikriti, who was also on the outskirts of the city, said there was no evidence of Iraqi airstrikes during daylight hours on Thursday. Minister of Defense Khalid al-Obaidi, visiting the base and posing in the cockpit of a Sukhoi-25 between sorties, said the combined operation would make quick work of the insurgents remaining in Tikrit. Some had already been seen fleeing, Mr. Obaidi said.
Some of the remaining Islamic State fighters were seen trying to swim across the Tigris River, but about 150 fighters remained surrounded in a former palace of Saddam Hussein and in the center of Tikrit, according to Mr. Hikmat. “We don’t know for sure when it will end, but lunch is ready for the lion. Then we go to the north and west.” He referred to areas held by the Islamic State — the city of Mosul and Nineveh Province to the north, and Anbar Province to the west.
An Iraqi military official in Salahuddin, speaking on the condition of anonymity, reported that 73 Islamic State fighters had been killed in the American bombing raids on the palace, while another seven were killed trying to flee across the river. The American-led military coalition has been carrying out airstrikes against ISIS since last summer in Kurdistan and around Mosul in northern Iraq, as well as in Syria, but had not joined the Tikrit offensive previously. The coalition has advisers and trainers in Iraq, but unlike the Iranians, it has not so far as is known sent them to front-line positions with Iraqi ground forces, at least in part because those forces have been dominated by irregular militiamen in the wake of last summer’s near collapse of the regular Iraqi Army.
A news release issued by the American military command late Wednesday said that “Iraqi security forces have ISIL in Tikrit encircled. Renewed efforts on the ground supported by the coalition are aimed at dislodging ISIL fighting elements from Tikrit and once again placing the town under the government of Iraq control.”
The American statement made no mention of the Shiite militia forces but stressed that the coalition would “continue supporting the Iraqi security forces and the government of Iraq.”
The deputy governor of Salahuddin Province, Ammar Hikmat, said that some of the remaining ISIS fighters were seen trying to swim across the Tigris River, but that some 150 fighters remained surrounded in a former palace of Saddam Hussein and in the center of Tikrit.
An Iraqi military official in Salahuddin, speaking on condition of anonymity as a matter of official policy, said that 73 ISIS fighters had been killed in the American bombing raids on the palace, while another 7 were killed trying to flee across the Tigris River.