Iraqi army commandos, Shiite militias battle to retake Tikrit

IRBIL, Iraq – Iraqi army commandos and Iranian-trained Shiite Muslim militias pressed their first significant counteroffensive against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria on Friday, battling Sunni insurgents in rebel-held Tikrit after a dramatic helicopter assault into the town Thursday afternoon.

The assault’s stakes are high for Iraq’s Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, whose army has been in headlong retreat for nearly three weeks as ISIS and its tribal allies captured the country’s second-largest city, Mosul, besieged its largest refinery at Baiji and threatened its biggest military base at Balad.

Recapturing Tikrit – Saddam Hussein’s hometown – would be a major boost ahead of the start of next week’s parliamentary session. Defeat would be disaster.

The initial assault on Thursday involved commandos from a unit that reports directly to al-Maliki.

They were airlifted aboard three helicopters to Tikrit University’s stadium, where they were met with heavy fire from ISIS. At least one of the helicopters was shot down.

The commandos managed in all-night fighting to take control of tall buildings near the stadium, according to witnesses and local residents.

On Friday, they were reinforced by militiamen believed to be members of the Shiite group Asiab al-Haq, an Iranian-trained militia with extensive experience fighting in Iraq against the U.S.-led occupation and in Syria in support of the regime of Bashar Assad, which faces its own Sunni rebel uprising. Reports indicated the commandos and militia members were battling to expand their perimeter late Friday, with uncertain results.

Massive desertions in recent weeks have crippled Iraq’s American-trained and equipped military, making it ineffective in countering ISIS fighters, who’ve teamed up with Sunni tribes and former officers from Saddam’s Baath Party to storm within a handful of miles of Baghdad. ISIS fighters have essentially cut off the capital from neighboring Jordan and Syria by seizing villages and cities along highways north and west of Baghdad.

It remained unclear Friday whether the government forces would succeed in taking back Tikrit, which fell to the advancing insurgents June 11.

The Defense Ministry in Baghdad offered no comment on the fighting.