City of Tikrit Falls to ISIL
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Jumat, 19 Oktober 2018 20:04 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Baghdad – After seizing the city of Mosul, militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Wednesday took over the city of Tikrit, which is the hometown of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Sources told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that gunmen had set up checkpoints around Tikrit, which is located between Baghdad and Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city that was captured by ISIL on Tuesday.
"All of Tikrit is in the hands of the militants," a police colonel told the AFP news agency. Iraq state television reported that special forces soldiers were fighting to regain control of the city.
Other sources said that the nearby city of Kirkuk, home for Iraq’s biggest oil refinery, was also attacked by ISIL. The group said they would ensure the safety of Iraq’s soldiers if they surrendered their weapons.
In the city of Samara, south of Tikrit, witnesses said that militants armed with machine guns had arrived while the police said their unit was involved in the fighting.
The city of Tikrit has become the third city seized by ISIL this year. The al-Qaeda-affiliated Sunni militant group has previously taken over the city of Fallujah and Mosul.
ANINGTIAS JATMIKA | AL JAZEERA
