Iraqi Shia militias withdraw from Tikrit operation

The US persuaded the Iraqi government to withdraw Iranian-backed Shia forces from an operation to retake the city of Tikrit from ISIS militants as a condition for American participation in the operation, a senior US general said on Thursday. General Lloyd Austin, the head of US Central Command, told a Senate hearing that the Shia militias have pulled back from that area. “Iraqi Special Forces and police are clearing Tikrit,” he added.

According to Gen. Austin, the operation to take back Tikrit launched on 2 March stalled because a “wrong approach” was taken. “Some of the forces in the operation were not supervised by the Iraqi government,” he claimed. “Now the offensive will move forward.”

Earlier in the day, spokesmen for Iraqi Shia militias said that they chose to withdraw from the operation in protest at the US participation, which has included airstrikes near Tikrit in support of the Iraqi Army. US officials said that the strikes were made at the request of the Iraqi government.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi announced that the military operation to retake Tikrit had resumed after government forces and Shia militias stopped their advance nearly two weeks ago. They halted, said several army commanders at the time, in order to regroup.