Operation launched to retake Tikrit

Backed by allied Shiite and Sunni fighters, Iraqi security forces started a large-scale military operation on Monday to recapture Saddam Hussein's hometown from the Islamic State extremist group, state TV said.

The city of Tikrit, some 130 kilometers north of Baghdad, fell into the hands of the Islamic State group last summer along with the country's second-largest city of Mosul and other areas in the country's Sunni heartland after the collapse of national security forces. Tikrit is one of the largest cities held by the Islamic State group and sits on the road to Mosul.

Security forces have so far been unable to retake Tikrit, but momentum has begun to shift after soldiers, backed by airstrikes from a US-led coalition, recently took back the nearby refinery town of Beiji. Any operation to take Mosul likely would require Iraq to seize Tikrit first because of its strategic location for military enforcements.