An offensive to retake Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit appears to have slowed, with fighters struggling to uproot Islamic State militants battling to retain control of one of their major bastions in Iraq.

Pro-government forces, led by Shia militias and including the Iraqi army and tribal fighters, this week launched a three-pronged assault on the centre of the city, which was conquered by Isis in a lightning advance last summer.

“Their situation is deteriorating and God willing the advance will continue,” said Ahmad al-Kinani, a member of the political council of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq, a Shia militia and political organisation taking part in the offensive.

The operation to reclaim Tikrit is a key test for the Iraqi government and the militias, known as the Hashd al-Shaabi, which have been at the forefront of the fight against Isis.

Their leading role in the battles has raised concerns of further alienating the Sunni community, which has been at odds with the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad. Reports have emerged in recent months of revenge attacks against civilians in areas retaken from Isis.

Iraq's assault on Isis sparks fears of new atrocities in the Sunni triangle Read more

Kinani said the pro-government forces had surrounded Tikrit on three sides and had the situation “under control”. He said the assault would involve fighters crossing the Tigris river to the north of the city, and attacks from the east from Ajil and from northern Samarra towards the south of Tikrit.

He said the bulk of the forces were from the Hashd al-Shaabi, but he declined to give specific figures for the number of troops. The initial force earmarked for the offensive consisted of 27,000, with about 9,000 expected to lead the campaign. A force comprising Sunni tribal fighters allied with the government was expected to pacify the town, and another group was meant to repatriate internally displaced refugees and gather intelligence.

Kinani said Isis had deployed suicide bombers in vehicles as a primary weapon to hold off the advance. He said another difficulty was the numerous booby traps and IEDs set up by Isis in various neighbourhoods in the city. But he insisted Isis was quickly losing morale and ammunition.



Others said the advance was likely to take longer. “There was initial optimism in lots of circles that Tikrit would be liberated within a few days, but that was very unrealistic,” said Zaid al-Ali, author of The Struggle for Iraq’s Future, a study of the country’s post-invasion decline. “Isis has been entrenching itself in the town for eight months and has booby-trapped the whole place.

“So yes, the offensive is bogged down but that is what we expected,” he added. “It will take some time for Iraqi forces to win this, perhaps weeks and perhaps even more.”

Ali said Isis was expected to put up a strong fight for Tikrit because its defeat would mark the first time the militant group had been forced to withdraw from a major town under its control. “It would be a severe blow to its reputation as a capable fighting force,” he said.

The US-led coalition has conspicuously avoided launching air strikes in support of the latest offensive. But the US vice-president, Joe Biden, offered support for the operation in a phone call with the Iraqi prime minister, Haidar al-Abadi, on Wednesday.

Biden commended Abadi and Iraqi leaders for “building a national front before launching the ongoing operation near Tikrit”, the White House said in a statement. He also noted the Iraqi government’s efforts to enable fighters from Salahuddin to participate in reclaiming their own territory from Isis militants, the White House said according to Reuters. Tikrit is the administrative centre of Salahuddin province.

Iran is playing a more active role than the US in supporting the offensive. Iranian news agencies reported on Monday that Qassem Suleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds force, the external arm of the Revolutionary Guards, arrived in Tikrit to “supervise and advise” local Iraqi forces in the battle against Isis.

Kinani said the militias did not need the backing of the US-led international coalition or air support to defeat the Isis insurgents in Tikrit. “We say with all confidence we don’t need any American or western intervention.”

He acknowledged that Iran was supporting the operation, though he played down the Islamic Republic’s role in the campaign, saying its presence consisted only of military advisers and that there were no Iranian fighters taking part in combat. “The Iranian support is exaggerated,” he said.

Ali said that while there were irregular and Iranian-backed militias involved in the fight, there were also “several thousand soldiers, police officers and tribal forces who are all from Tikrit who are all involved in the fighting” and were set to take control of the city at the battle’s conclusion.

He said the main challenge for the government in Baghdad was whether it could exert control at that point and ensure that the local fighters from Tikrit were the ones who take control of their city after its liberation.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Iraqi forces to protect civilians from reprisals by the pro-government militias. “All commanders in Tikrit need to make sure that their forces protect civilians and allow them to flee the combat zone,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and north Africa director at the rights watchdog.

“Past fighting raises grave concerns that Tikrit’s civilians are at serious risk from both Isis and government forces, and both sides need to protect civilians from more sectarian slaughter.” HRW said it had documented numerous atrocities by security forces and militias after retaking towns held by Isis in Iraq.

The United Nations said around 28,000 people had fled their homes following the effort to retake Tikrit. “Field reports indicate that additional displacements are under way and that yet more families remain stuck at checkpoints,” it said.

A man who fled the city last month told the Guardian that 90% of its residents had left out of fear both of Isis and of revenge attacks once the town is liberated. He said most of the residents had gone to nearby cities such as Baghdad and Samarra, or to Kurdistan or, further afield, to Lebanon.

He said the situation in the town under Isis was “tragic, without life”, and there was a lack of fuel and essential services. “It is a ghost town,” he added.

The man, who declined to be identified, said many from the city feared attacks in retribution for the Camp Speicher massacre last year, in which Isis claimed to have killed 1,700 Shia Iraqi army cadets after it conquered the town. He said Isis collaborators ought to be arrested and tried instead.

“What we fear is revenge operations despite statements of the government and religious authorities that there should be no revenge,” he said, adding that local tribes had dissociated themselves from Isis and pledged to hand over any collaborators. “We don’t have a culture of reconciliation,” he said.