Second Battle of Tikrit
2015 battle of the War in Iraq / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Second Battle of Tikrit was a battle in which Iraqi Security Forces recaptured the city of Tikrit (the provincial capital of the Saladin Governorate) from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Iraqi forces consisted of the Iraqi Army and the Popular Mobilization Forces (the bulk of the ground forces, consisting of Shia militiamen and also some Sunni tribesmen), receiving assistance from Iran's Quds Force officers on the ground, and air support from the American, British, and French air forces.[55]
Second Battle of Tikrit | |||||||||
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Part of War in Iraq and the Salahuddin campaign | |||||||||
Military diagram illustrating the situation in central Salahuddin province, from early to mid-March 2015.[1][2] | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Iraq Iran[11] Airstrikes: United States[12] (25–31 March only)[13][14][15] United Kingdom (25–29 March only)[16] France[17][18] | Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Lt. Gen. Abdel-Wahab al-Saadi[19] (Head of Badr Organization)[23][24] Qais Khazali[25] Madi al-Kinani †[26] Ali al-Moussawi †[27] Maj. Gen. Fadhil Barwari (ICTS commander) |
Abu Suleiman (Replacement Military Chief)[28] Abu Nabil al-Anbari † (ISIL Governor of the Saladin Governorate) Abu Maria † (Top ISIL leader in Tikrit)[29] | ||||||||
Units involved | |||||||||
Iraq:
Iran: United States: United Kingdom: France: | Military of ISIL | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
20,000–30,000+[37][41]
| 2,000–13,000[10][50] | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
230[19]–1,000+[51] killed | 842–1,142 killed, 80 captured[9][10][29][52] | ||||||||
46 civilians killed[10][53] 28,000 civilians displaced[54] |
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,[8] 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.[9][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.[10]