Iraqi forces have launched an operation to retake Tikrit, the hometown of toppled President Saddam Hussein, from Islamic State fighters. Al Jazeera sources reported that the troops were advancing from the south and southwest and heavy clashes with the armed group were taking place 10km from the the city, capital of Salahidin province and located about 200km north of Baghdad. Tikrit fell to the group formerly known as ISIL on June 11 and has since been controlled mostly by Sunni armed groups, including former members of Saddam’s ruling Baath party. “We have to remember Tikrit is an urban city so there’s going to be fighting in urban areas. The army had abandoned their positions in much of the Sunni heartland in June when the IS group took control of that territory,” Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr reported from Erbil. “There’s a real risk of this becoming a Sunni-Shia war because […]