Iraq launches military operation to recapture Tikrit

Iraqi troops. — (Image credit: Twitter.com/Haaretz)

A large-scale military operation by Iraqi government forces to take back Tikrit from ISIS is underway, Iraqi state television reports.

The forces are backed by allied Shiite and Sunni fighters and artillery and airstrikes by Iraqi fighter jets, The Associated Press reports. Some militants are said to have been forced out of areas near Tikrit, which is 80 miles north of Baghdad and Saddam Hussein’s hometown. Tikrit fell to ISIS last summer, and before the operation, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told Sunni fighters that if they left the militant orgnanization, they would be pardoned.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.