Iraqi forces make major gains against ISIL in Salahuddin province
Rahshan Saglam
Press TV, Tikrit
Iraq’s Salaheddin province has been the scene of fierce clashes between ISIL Takfiri terrorists and an alliance of the army and the voluntary forces since mid 2014.
Today the volunteer forces say they have taken back most areas in Salaheddin from the terrorists.
The voluntary forces took us through the newly-liberated areas. They told us that fighting ISIL has not been easy because the terrorists use sophisticated weapons.
They also say the fact that the terrorists use mosques as their bases further complicated fighting.
The Owaynat Mosque was one of the most important bases for ISIL in Tikrit.
It was used as the base for their military operations and intelligence information all over Tikrit, for it has a strategic place and lies near the river, where ISIL could easily use the bridge to get to the Dor area, one of their strongholds.
This mosque in Owaynat area was used by ISIL as a base for their operations in Tikrit province. The volunteer forces did not only drive back the terrorists out of Owaynat, they were also able to push them some 10km away. Now we stand 10 km away from ISIL and the area is totally cleared as the result of the operations done by the Iraqi army and the volunteer forces.
The volunteers have been battling the ISIL in Tikrit for the past 7 months. They say the operations were based on intelligence about the location of the terrorists or else they wouldn’t have been able to push them out of the province.
The liberation of Salaheddin came as a result of cooperation between the Iraqi army and the volunteer forces. Iraqi officials say this was carried out without the support of a so-called US-led coalition against ISIL as they say no air strike has been taken place in the area.
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