Late Wednesday, American warplanes began airstrikes against Islamic State positions in Tikrit, Iraq.
It is the first time the United States has participated in the Iraqi offensive to take back the city, located north of Baghdad. For the past three weeks, a coalition of Shiite militias and Iraqi security forces, aided by Iranian military advisers, have been trying to get ISIS out of the city. Control of Tikrit would give Iraqi forces access to important roads, The New York Times reports, and would be the first major defeat of ISIS since it took over several cities in Iraq last summer.
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