Iraq premier: Troops in center of Islamic State-held Tikrit
Iraqi forces battled Islamic State militants Tuesday holed up in downtown Tikrit as the country's prime minister announced security forces had reached the city's center.
In a statement Tuesday, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said security forces already have retaken neighborhoods on the southern and western edges of Saddam Hussein's hometown and are moving to control the entire city. But Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, the commander of the Salahuddin operation, said his forces fighting in from the west were still 300 meters (325 yards) from the center of Tikrit. Street-to-street fighting raged into Tuesday afternoon and estimates on how much of this strategic city on the banks of the Tigris River that Iraqi forces held widely differed. Iraqi army Lt. Gen. Talib Shaghati said at least 75 percent of the city had been recaptured. Ammar Hikmat, deputy governor of Salahuddin province, said more than 40 percent of Tikrit was under Iraqi control.
