An Iraqi security forces member stands looking at smoke billowing from the Ajeel oil field located 35km northeast of Tikrit on March 11, 2015 after it was reportedly set on fire by the Islamic State jihadist (IS) group to provide cover from air strikes during the military operation by Iraqi pro-government forces. AFP
AFP/ Awja
Iraqi forces besieging dozens of die-hard jihadists from the Islamic State group in Tikrit will have liberated the city within three days, a spokesman said Saturday.
Karim al-Nuri, a top leader from the Badr militia and the spokesman of the volunteer Popular Mobilisation units, said it would take no more than "72 hours" to flush out holdout IS fighters.
The Popular Mobilisation units account for the bulk of the manpower involved in the two-week-old operation to wrest back Tikrit, alongside army, police, militia and tribal forces.
The last IS fighters holed up in the city centre are "surrounded from all sides", Nuri said.
Speaking to AFP from the outskirts of Tikrit, near the village of Awja, he said "their number is now 60 to 70".
Nuri added that the liberation of Tikrit would only be announced once a path has been cleared through the thousands of bombs the jihadists have planted to defend the city.
