Second Battle of Tikrit

The city of Tikrit, located in the central part of the Saladin Governorate in north of Baghdad and Samarra and lying adjacent to the Tigris River, was lost to ISIL during the huge strides made by the group during its offensive in June 2014. After its capture, ISIL retaliated with the massacre at Camp Speicher, a nearby training facility for the Iraqi Air Force. After months of preparation and intelligence-gathering, Iraqi forces engaged in offensive operations to fully encircle^[56][57] and subsequently retake the city, starting on 2 March 2015.^[58][59][60] The offensive was the largest anti-ISIL operation to date, involving some 20,000–30,000 Iraqi forces (outnumbering ISIL fighters more than two-to-one), with an estimated 13,000 ISIL fighters present.^[37][61] It was reported that 90% of the residents of the city left out of fear both of ISIL and retaliatory attacks by Shia militias once the city is captured. As such, most of the residents fled to nearby cities, such as Baghdad and Samarra, or even further to Iraqi Kurdistan or Lebanon.^[62]


On 4 April, after several days of heavy fighting and acts of vengeance committed by some Shia militias, the situation in the city was reported to have been stabilized,^[63] and the last pockets of ISIL resistance were eliminated,^[64] with an Iraqi Police Major reporting that "The situation now is calm."^[65] However, on 5 April, continued resistance by 500 ISIL fighters in the city was reported in several pockets,^[16] which persisted for another week as government forces continued combing Tikrit for hiding ISIL fighters, especially in the northern Qadisiya District. On 12 April 2015, Iraqi forces declared that Tikrit was finally free of all ISIL forces, stating that it was safe for residents to return.^[66] However, pockets of resistance persisted until 17 April,^[67] when the last 140 ISIL sleeper agents in the city were killed.^[17][52] Cleanup and defusing operations in the city continued, but Iraqi officials predicted that it would take at least several months to remove the estimated 5,000–10,000 IEDs left behind by ISIL in Tikrit.^[18]

Background[edit]

Tikrit, the hometown of the ex-president Saddam Hussein, fell to ISIL during the offensive in June 2014. A first attempt to recapture the city in late June 2014 was repelled by ISIL after a few days, as well as another Iraqi attempt to recapture the city in July 2014. Subsequent efforts in December 2014 also failed to make headway against ISIL, which consolidated control over Tikrit and its environs. On the morning of 19 August 2014, Iraqi government troops and allied militiamen launched a major operation, to retake the city of Tikrit from the militants. The military push started early in the morning from the south and southwest of the city.^[68] However, by the afternoon, the offensive had been repelled by the insurgents.^[69] Additionally, the military lost its positions in the southern area of the city it had captured a few weeks earlier.^[70]


The operation in Tikrit counted as the first major attempt by both Iraqi military and the Iran-backed Shiite to recapture ground seized by the Islamic State group since the previous summer.

Preparations[edit]

In early February 2015, Iraqi forces and their allies began preparations for an attack on Tikrit, with troops arriving in the nearby city of Samarra.^[71] The allied forces were composed of a heterogeneous make-up, including Iraqi security forces; a multitude of Shia militias which received support, training, and leaders from Iran;^[72] and a number of Sunni tribes. Iranian leaders included officers from the revolutionary guard's extraterritorial operations division, the Quds Force, including the commander of the Quds Force, General Qasem Soleimani himself.


The Iraqi Army and Security Forces, along with Shia militia groups who call themselves Popular Mobilisation Units, were to push into Tikrit from several directions. Some Iranian commanders took part in leading the operation,^[32] with general Qasem Soleimani directing operations on the eastern flank from a village about 35 miles from Tikrit called Albu Rayash. The offensive was the biggest military operation in the Salahuddin region since the previous summer, when ISIL fighters killed hundreds of Iraq army soldiers who had abandoned their military base at Camp Speicher outside Tikrit.^[73] Soleimani was also spotted at Camp Speicher where he oversaw elements of the Kata'ib Imam Ali and the Badr brigades.^[33]


The Shia paramilitary groups constituted by far the largest component of the allied forces at 20,000 fighters, with 3,000 being the total count of the Iraqi Security Forces and roughly a thousand or so Sunni tribesman making up the rest of the combined army.^[74][75]


An adviser to the Iraqi government was quoted as saying that the attackers were divided into an initial assault force of 9,000, with another group made up of local Sunni tribesmen who were to "pacify" the city, and another group which would work on intelligence gathering, reconstruction work, and dealing with the expected refugee flow caused by the fighting.^[76]


According to reports from locals, most of the civilian residents had left Tikrit for Iraqi Kurdistan and Baghdad, leaving mostly ISIL fighters inside the city.^[77] The UN estimated that about 28,000 civilians had reached Samarra following the outbreak of the offensive against ISIL.^[78]


The U.S.-led Coalition was not initially a participant in the operation.^{[79][80][81][82]} As the battle commenced, Gen. Martin Dempsey mentioned that, while the U.S.-led Coalition had not been directly involved in the offensive, the continuous airstrikes along the length and breadth of ISIL territories in Syria and Iraq had greatly depleted the groups' capacity, and that the newest assault against Tikrit would not have been militarily feasible, were it not for the airstrike campaign in the preceding months throughout the country. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs also maintained that Iran's overt role could be positive and could only become problematic if it descended into sectarianism.^[83][84]

Aftermath[edit]

On 8 April 2015, Iraqi government forces built on their advances in the area around Tikrit and launched an offensive to liberate the Anbar Province from ISIL.^[149] As a result of the Iraqi offensive, ISIL launched a counterattack in the region, capturing 3 villages to the east of Ramadi on 15 April.^[150]


Following the end of the battle, cleanup and defusing operations continued in Tikrit. However, Iraqi officials predicted that it would take several months to fully identify and remove all of the 5,000–10,000 IEDs that had been left behind by ISIL in the city.^[18]


After the clearing and de-mining operations by the Iraqi army and militias, over 50% of the former inhabitants of the city of Tikrit returned, according to a statement by an Iraqi official.^[151] Other towns around Tikrit have also seen large numbers of displaced civilians returning. Al-Alam saw 90% of its population return by mid-September 2015.^[152]

34°36′N 43°41′E / 34.600°N 43.683°E / 34.600; 43.683