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He said that with the creation of the caliphate, the group was changing its name to just the Islamic State, dropping the mention of Iraq and Al-Sham.

It was unclear what immediate practical impact the declaration would have on the ground in Syria and Iraq, or among the wider global jihadi community.

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Iraqi helicopter gunships struck suspected insurgent positions in Tikrit on Sunday as part of a government offensive to retake the northern city from Sunni militants led by ISIS, residents and officials said.

The Iraqi military opened its campaign to wrest back Tikrit, the hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein, on Saturday with a multi-pronged assault spearheaded by ground troops backed by tanks and helicopters.

The predominantly Sunni city, a hotbed of antipathy toward Iraq’s Shiite-led government, is one of two major urban centres that fell to insurgents earlier this month during their lightning offensive across the country’s north and west.

The insurgents appeared to have repelled the military’s initial push for Tikrit, and remained in control of the city on Sunday, but clashes were taking place in the northern neighbourhood of Qadissiyah, two residents reached by telephone said.

Muhanad Saif Al-Din, who lives in the city centre, said he could see smoke rising from Qadissiyah, which borders the University of Tikrit, where troops brought by helicopter established a bridgehead two days ago. He said many of the militants in Tikrit had deployed to the city’s outskirts, apparently to blunt the military attack.