ISIL has launched preemptive strikes as government forces and their allies advance into Tikrit and Samarra [Reuters] Iraq has launched a military offensive against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the latest attempt to oust the armed group from the strategic province of Salaheddin, which includes the ancient city of Tikrit.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abbadi arrived on Sunday in the northern city of Samarra in Salaheddin to oversee the military operation, and vowed to "liberate" the province "from the tyranny of the terrorists".

Thousands of government troops, fighters from Shia militia and Sunni tribes have gathered around Samarra for the operation in the nearby strongholds of ISIL near the Tigris River, Al Jazeera has learned.

Iraq's military also told Reuters news agency that around 2,000 Shia militia fighters have arrived near Tikrit in preparation for the major operation.

Raed Jabouri, governor of Salaheddin, had said last week that 5,000 fighters from the security forces and Hashid Shaabi militia, which was formed last year with Iranian support, would join the operation.

Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said that "this is one of the biggest military operations that will eventually proceed to take back Mosul," referring to main city of Nineveh province, which is the stronghold of ISIL.
Our correspondent said that US air strikes are also expected to provide back-up for the Iraqi troops on the ground.

"This is not expected to be an easy fight," she said. "ISIL has dug in there."

Suicide bombings

In his speech in Samarra, Abbadi warned the troops to "secure the safety of all of our civilians" as they move towards the north to Mosul.

Ahead of the ground operation, ISIL fighters launched on Saturday preemptive strikes against targets in Samarra, where security forces and their allies have been gathering for the offensive.

Security sources and residents said that two ISIL suicide bombers blew up their cars in the northern area of Sur Shnas.

At the same time a man drove a Humvee rigged with explosives into the south of the city and detonated it, while ISIL fighters attacked security forces to the west with sniper fire, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

Medical sources told Reuters that Samarra hospital received the bodies of 14 Shia fighters and policemen.

Residents reported seeing black smoke over parts of the city and hearing powerful explosions.
After heavy clashes in the morning, the fighting appeared to have subsided by the afternoon.

The army shelled northern and western districts of Tikrit on Saturday, but did not send troops into the city, security sources said.

Earlier, witnesses said that ISIL have also blocked three main entrances to the south, west and north of Tikrit with four-meter concrete blast walls.

They also covered a bridge across the Tigris with about one meter of sand in the hope of absorbing the impact of the bombs.

After months of air strikes by the US and its Western and Arab allies, ISIL is on the defensive in several parts of the "caliphate" it declared in swathes of Iraq and Syria.

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ISIL has launched preemptive strikes as government forces and their allies advance into Tikrit and Samarra [Reuters]

Aljazeera