Ukraine in Arabic | The Iraqi army is advancing. Sunni residents fleeing from Tikrit

06.03.2015 - 09:42 #Tikrit, #Iraq, #Mosul, #war, #refugees

Fear of reprisals by the Shiite militia of Tikrit fleeing Sunni residents. The Iraqi army day four continues the assault on the city of Tikrit, since last summer under the control of the militants of the terrorist organization "Islamic state".

Kiev/ Ukraine in Arabic/ Battles with aviation so intense that there was a mass Exodus of residents from the city, AFP reports. On Thursday jihadists set fire to oil wells in the city, which led to the formation of thick smoke that hides the target for air raids. According to the UN, more than 28 thousand people have already left Tikrit.

Refugees heading towards the town of Samarra, but many of them arrested at the checkpoints of the Iraqi army.

Many of them are Sunni and they are afraid that the army help groups Shiite militias, which can avenge their fallen comrades.

Through a friend in Tikrit trying to convey that the militia is not touched by those who will post in their Windows white flags. "Reports from the field specifies that the flow of refugees has not stopped, and now many families are still at the checkpoint," the article says the organization. In the operation for the liberation of Tikrit attended by about 30 thousand Iraqi soldiers and Shiite militias.

They try to surround jihadists, but their advancement has slowed because of the mines and land mines laid from June of last year by Islamists. The attack is supported Iraqi aircraft, including helicopter gunships.

Aircraft anti-Islamist coalition do not participate in it. It is reported that the Islamists were knocked out of some areas on the border of the city.

On Wednesday, a source in the Iraqi army told the BBC that government forces had taken the village of MIDI on the road between Tikrit and Kirkuk, and established control over the neighboring oil fields. However, they still cannot overcome the defense of jihadists in the area between Tikrit and al-Dur 19 km to the South, which also strengthened the power of the IG.

The capture of Tikrit, the home town of former dictator Saddam Hussein, tactically necessary for the liberation of Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, captured by Islamists last year.

Wide expansion of the IG, seized a large area of Iraq and Syria, has become one of the major global problems of 2014. The group, numbering, according to the CIA, about 30 thousand militants, declared in the occupied territories of the Caliphate and seeks to continue to expand their purchases.