Iraqi forces secure strategic Tikrit-Samara main road
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraqi security forces have re-opened the main highway from Tikrit to Samarra, a key route that has been closed for days by intense fighting between security troops and the Islamic State, an Iraqi TV channel announced.
“Iraqi security forces opened the main road from Tikrit to Samara that had been closed due to the [violence] in Tikrit’s Qadsia neighborhood,” the Al-Iraqiya channel reported Wednesday.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced on Tuesday the long-awaited victory of Iraqi forces, backed by US-led coalition airstrikes, in the liberation of Tikrit,
ISIS militants denied that Tikrit had fallen on the extremists' social media.
Tikrit, in Anbar province, was until recently an ISIS stronghold. Samarra, in neighboring Salahaddin province, contains one of the holiest shrines in Shiite Islam.
“Iraqi security forces opened the main road from Tikrit to Samara that had been closed due to the [violence] in Tikrit’s Qadsia neighborhood,” the Al-Iraqiya channel reported Wednesday.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced on Tuesday the long-awaited victory of Iraqi forces, backed by US-led coalition airstrikes, in the liberation of Tikrit,
ISIS militants denied that Tikrit had fallen on the extremists' social media.
Tikrit, in Anbar province, was until recently an ISIS stronghold. Samarra, in neighboring Salahaddin province, contains one of the holiest shrines in Shiite Islam.