Iraq begins operation 'to retake Tikrit'

A large-scale military operation to recapture Saddam Hussein’s home town from the Islamic State extremist group has begun, Iraq’s state TV says.

Al-Iraqiya television said today that government forces backed by allied Shiite and Sunni fighters were attacking the city of Tikrit, backed by artillery and air strikes by Iraqi fighter jets.

It said the militants were dislodged from some areas outside the city, but gave no details.

Hours ahead of the operation, prime minister Haider al-Abadi called on Sunni tribal fighters to abandon the extremist group, promising them a pardon.

Tikrit, some 80 miles north of Baghdad, fell in to the hands of the Islamic State group last summer along with the country’s second-largest city of Mosul and other areas in the Sunni heartland.