Iraq Forces Look to Tighten Noose around Tikrit

The Iraqi army said Wednesday that its strategy for retaking the jihadist stronghold of Tikrit is to surround the city before launching an assault.

On Monday, the Iraqi security forces and a variety of allied fighting units launched the biggest ground operation yet against the Islamic State group in Iraq.

Backed by jets and helicopters, the 30,000-strong force is moving in from three main directions, their progress slowed by suicide bombers, sniper fire and booby traps.

A senior commander said operations were currently focused on preventing IS from launching more attacks and cutting supply lines to stop reinforcements and weapons from reaching Tikrit.

The next step will be to "surround the towns completely, suffocate them and then pounce on them," Lieutenant General Abdel Amir al-Zaidi told AFP.

Iraqi forces have yet to retake Ad-Dawr and Al-Alam, towns south and north of Tikrit respectively which command access to the city.

He said the operation launched Monday had already achieved results by securing areas further out in Salaheddin province and forcing IS fighters to regroup in urban areas.

"The first phase of the battle to liberate Salaheddin was successfully completed -- and in record time -- by clearing the areas in the east of the province," Zaidi said.

"Our forces are advancing gradually, although slowed by roadside bombs and sniper fire," another lieutenant general involved in the operation said.

Baghdad has tried and failed several times to retake Tikrit since IS fighters seized it in June 2014, as they swept through the country's Sunni Arab heartland.

Observers say this operation is bigger and better coordinated.

But there are concerns that Sunni civilians trapped in the city could be killed in the fighting or in reprisal attacks by Shiite fighters, deepening sectarian grievances.

Earlier, the U.S. military's top officer said Tuesday that Iran's role in the Iraqi offensive to recapture Tikrit could be positive as long as it does not fuel sectarian divisions in the country.

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators that Iran's military assistance for Shiite militia was nothing new but was carried out in a more open manner this week as Iraqi forces pushed to retake Tikrit from Islamic State jihadists.

"This is the most overt conduct of Iranian support," Dempsey said, which came "in the form of artillery" and other aid.

"Frankly, it would only be a problem if it resulted in sectarianism," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

U.S. commanders rarely discuss Iran's activities in Iraq in public, stressing that Washington does not coordinate with Tehran's military in any way -- even though the two foes see the IS group as a common enemy.

U.S. officials have pressed the Shiite-led government in Baghdad to reach out to the country's alienated Sunni community and worry that Shiite militia could persecute the Sunni community as they push to roll back the IS group.

In an assault launched Monday, officials in Baghdad say a 30,000-strong force has been mobilized to take back Tikrit.

Dempsey said Shiite militia -- which are armed by Tehran -- account for about two-thirds of the force while Iraqi government army troops make up the remainder.

If the Iraqi army and Shiite fighters "perform in a credible way" and defeat the jihadists in Tikrit, "then it will, in the main, have been a positive thing in terms of the counter-ISIL campaign," Dempsey said, using an alternative acronym for the IS extremists.

General Qassem Suleimani, the head of Iran's powerful Quds force, is reportedly on the ground with Shiite fighters coordinating the operation on Tikrit.

Dempsey said he had seen a recent photo of the commander in social media and that U.S. intelligence agencies "will now go to work to decide if he was personally there or not."

At the same hearing, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter acknowledged Iraq did not ask for military support from Washington for the Tikrit operation, the largest assault so far by Baghdad against the IS.

Carter said he shared Dempsey's concerns about sectarian divisions erupting and that Washington was closely monitoring the conduct of the campaign.

"I hope sectarianism does not show its ugly head," Carter said.

But after the hearing, two Republican hawks on the committee, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, demanded President Barack Obama's administration "wake up" to the threat posed by Iran's influence in Iraq, saying Tehran's backing of Shiite militia could derail the war effort against the IS.

"The Iranian-backed offensive in Tikrit, and its growing role in Iraq more broadly, is not only threatening our mission against ISIL.

"It is being led by the same Shia militias that killed American soldiers in Iraq and directed by the same Iranian leaders that gave them the weapons and training to do it," said a joint statement from the two senators.