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| Members of an Iraqi Shiite militant group called Soldiers of Imam Ali Brigades prepare to launch rockets against Islamic State extremists' positions in Qadisiyya neighborhood in Tikrit, 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, March 13, 2015. Iraqi forces entered Tikrit for the first time on Wednesday from the north and south. On Friday, they fought fierce battles to secure the northern Tikrit neighborhood of Qadisiyya and lobbed mortars and rockets into the city center, still in the hands of IS. Iraqi military officials have said they expect to reach the center of Tikrit within two to three days. |
TIKRIT, Iraq
(AP) -- The U.S. has failed to live up to its promises to help Iraq
fight Islamic State extremists, unlike the "unconditional" assistance
being given by Iran, the commander of Iraq's powerful Shiite militias
alleged Friday.
In a battlefield interview
near Tikrit, where Iraqi forces are fighting to retake Saddam Hussein's
hometown from the militants of the so-called Islamic State, commander
Hadi al-Amiri criticized those who "kiss the hands of the Americans and
get nothing in return."
Iraqi forces entered
Tikrit for the first time Wednesday from the north and south. On Friday,
they waged fierce battles to secure the northern neighborhood of
Qadisiyya and lobbed mortar shells and rockets into the city center,
still in the hands of IS militants. Iraqi military officials have said
they expect to reach central Tikrit in two to three days.
The
Iranian-backed Shiite militias have played a crucial role in regaining
territory from the Sunni extremists of the Islamic State group,
supporting Iraq's embattled military and police forces.
An
Iraqi government official told The Associated Press that Iran has sold
Baghdad nearly $10 billion in arms and hardware, mostly weapons for
urban warfare like assault rifles, heavy machine-guns and rocket
launchers. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was
not authorized to brief the media.
In
November, President Barack Obama authorized the deployment of up to
1,500 more U.S. troops to bolster Iraqi forces, which could more than
double the total of American forces in Iraq to 3,100. The Pentagon has
made a spending request to Congress of $1.6 billion, focusing on
training and arming Kurdish and Iraqi forces. According to a Pentagon
document prepared in November, the U.S. is looking to provide an
estimated $89.3 million in weapons and equipment to each of the nine
Iraqi brigades.
The U.S.-led coalition of
eight countries has launched more than 2,000 airstrikes in Iraq alone
since August 2014, and the U.S. is also hitting the militant group from
the air in Syria. Iraqi and U.S. officials have acknowledged the role
airstrikes have played in rolling back the militants, saying the air
campaign was an essential component in victories at the Mosul Dam, in
Amirli, and more recently, in the crucial oil refining town of Beiji.
But
the U.S. is not taking part in the operation in Tikrit, with U.S.
officials saying they were not asked by Iraq to participate.
Al-Amiri,
the Shiite militia commander who also is head of the Badr Organization
political party, said that "help from Iran is unconditional."
He
warned that Iraq should not sacrifice its sovereignty for the sake of
receiving weapons and assistance from the U.S., suggesting the Iraqi
government is taking instructions from Washington.
"Our sovereignty is more important than U.S. weapons," he said. "We can bring weapons from any country in the world."
Separately,
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite cleric, urged the
government to step up its support for the Shiite militias and to take
care of the families of militiamen killed in battle. His remarks were
relayed by his spokesman Ahmed al-Safi in the Shiite holy city of
Karbala.
As many as 30,000 men are fighting
the extremists in Tikrit - most of them volunteers with various Shiite
militias, Iraqi officials say. U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey said Wednesday
that up to 20,000 militiamen may be involved.
Karim
al-Nouri, a spokesman for the Popular Mobilization Forces, the official
name of the Shiite militias, said as many as 40 Iranian advisers are
also taking part.
In its march across Syria
and northern and western Iraq, the Islamic State group - also known as
ISIS or ISIL - has seized cities, towns and vast tracts of land. Its
predominantly Sunni fighters view Shiites as apostates and have carried
out a number of massacres.
On Friday, a
prominent Iraqi Sunni preacher urged authorities to prevent Shiite
militias from carrying out revenge attacks on Sunnis in Tikrit. In his
appeal, Sheik Abdel Sattar Abdul Jabbar cited reports of Shiite
militiamen burning Sunni homes in the battle.
"We
ask that actions follow words to punish those who are attacking houses
in Tikrit," Abdul Jabbar said during his Friday sermon in Baghdad. "We
are sorry about those acting in revenge that might ignite tribal anger
and add to our sectarian problems."
Abdul
Jabbar said that if the government failed to stop revenge attacks by
Shiite militias, Iraq would face reignited sectarian tensions, similar
to those it witnessed at the height of Iraq's sectarian wars in 2006 and
2007.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last
week called on his forces to protect civilians and their property in
recaptured areas, vowing zero tolerance for any violations. He also
urged Sunnis who may have welcomed the initial onslaught or fought
beside the militants to give up their support for IS.
"I
call upon those who have been misled or committed a mistake to lay down
arms and join their people and security forces in order to liberate
their cities," al-Abadi said.
Human Rights
Watch said Friday the Shiite militias have engaged in "deliberate
destruction of civilian property" after security forces recaptured the
town of Amirli and other areas where Sunni militants were driven out. In
a report titled, "After Liberation Came Destruction: Iraqi Militias and
the Aftermath of Amerli," the rights group cited evidence that militias
looted the property of Sunni civilians who had fled fighting, burned
their homes and businesses, and destroyed at least two villages.
"Iraq
clearly faces serious threats in its conflict with ISIS, but the abuses
committed by forces fighting ISIS are so rampant and egregious that
they are threatening Iraq long-term," said Joe Stork, the deputy Middle
East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "Iraqis are caught
between the horrors ISIS commits and abusive behavior by militias, and
ordinary Iraqis are paying the price."
