The troops and allied Shiite and Sunni militias, covered by Iraqi aircraft, entered in the afternoon the town of Dour, in south of the provincial capital city of Tikrit, some 170 km north of Baghdad, from all directions after heavy bombardment on the central neighborhoods, a security source from Salahudin province told Xinhua on condition of anonymity....
"Most of Daash (IS militant group) foreign fighters have fled the town earlier and only few local fighters remained," the source said, adding that the troops were still fighting sporadic clashes in small pockets inside the town....
...Meanwhile, the army units continued their heavy shelling with artillery, mortar rounds and rockets on the IS positions in Tikrit, nearby town of Alam and adjacent Albu Ajil area, as part of their preparations to retake control the remaining areas of the province, according to the provincial security source.
The Iraqi security forces began their operation before Sunday dawn via five paths: two from Mkesheifa and Sur Shnas, south of Tikrit, two others from Udheim and Tuz Khurmato, east of Tikrit, and the last from the Speicher airbase, just north of Tikrit, according to security sources.
Large parts of Salahudin province have been under IS control since
June 11, a day after bloody clashes broke out between Iraqi security
forces and the IS group, which took control of the country's northern
city of Mosul and later seized swathes of territories in Nineveh and
other predominantly Sunni provinces....Nimrud is along the Tigris River.
