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Baghdad seeks airstrikes to rid Tikrit of IS; Saddam tomb leveled
[ARABNEWS] Iraq said on Monday it had put its Tikrit offensive on hold and bigwigs called for more Arclight airstrikes to dislodge Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
 bandidos Lions of Islam who have laid explosives across the city and still hold its central districts.

The offensive, the largest yet against Lions of Islam who swept through northern Iraq in June, has been stalled for four days after Iraqi security forces and mainly Shiite militia pushed into Tikrit last week.

They have struggled to gain further ground against the bandidos Lions of Islam who are holed up in a vast complex of palaces built when Saddam was in power. Military officials in Tikrit said there was no fighting on Monday in the city that was home to more than 250,000 people before it was overrun last year.

Government forces are in control of most of the northern Qadisiya district as well as the southern and western outskirts of the city, trapping the bandidos Lions of Islam in an area bounded by the river that runs through Tikrit. Though Iraqi forces and allied gunnies may have the Lions of Islam in a chokehold, officials are increasingly citing air power as necessary to drive out the remaining bully boys. "We need air support from any force that can work with us against IS," Deputy Minister of Defense Ibrahim Al-Lami told Rooters, refusing to say whether he meant from the US-led coalition or Iran.

Interior Minister Mohammed Al-Ghaban said authorities had put a temporary halt to the offensive in Tikrit. "We have decided to halt military operations in Salahuddin in order to reduce casualties among our heroic forces... and to preserve the remaining infrastructure," the minister said.

Meanwhile,
...back at the argument, Livia grabbed for Jane's hair to make her point. Jane elbowed her in the face in rebuttal...
 the tomb of Iraq's late dictator Saddam Hussein was virtually leveled in heavy festivities. News Agency that Dare Not be Named video from the village of Ouja, just south of Tikrit, shows all that remains of Hussein's once-lavish tomb are the support columns that held up the roof.

Poster-sized pictures of Saddam, which once covered the mausoleum, are now nowhere to be seen amid the mountains of concrete rubble. Instead, Shiite militia flags and photos of militia leaders mark the predominantly Sunni village, including that of Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the powerful Iranian general advising Iraqi Shiite militias on the battlefield.
Posted by: Fred 2015-03-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=413007