Iraq Defense Minister: Tikrit under full control

Baku.14 March.REPORT.AZ/ Iraqi defense minister Khalid al-Obeidi said army and Popular Mobilization Forces gets complete control of Tikrit the capital of Salahuddin province.

Report informs, Iraqi forces on Friday battled terrorist of ISIS making what looked increasingly like a last stand in Tikrit.

Thousands of fighters surrounded a few hundred holdout ISIS militants, pounding their positions from the air in the city centre.

“We are surrounding the gunmen in the city centre. We’re advancing slowly due to the great number of IEDs (improvised explosive devices),” a police colonel told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“We estimate there are 10,000 IEDs in the city,” he said.

Massively outnumbered, the terrorists defence consists of a network of booby traps, roadside bombs and snipers through which suicide attackers occasionally ram car bombs into enemy targets. “Six soldiers were killed and 11 wounded in a suicide car bomb this morning in Al-Dyum neighbourhood” in western Tikrit, the colonel said. An army major confirmed the death toll.