Summary
Iraqi government forces and Iran-backed militiamen entered a town on the southern outskirts of Saddam Hussein's home city Tikrit Friday, pressing on with the biggest offensive yet against ISIS militants that seized the north last year.
Elsewhere, Iraqi forces and allied militia retook the town of Al-Baghdadi, from where ISIS had threatened to attack an airbase housing US troops, the US military said Friday.
Military commanders said the army and mostly Shiite militia forces had retaken the town of Al-Dour on Tikrit's outskirts, known outside Iraq as the area where executed former dictator Saddam was found hiding in a pit near a farm house in 2003 .
Some officials said the troops were still only in the south and east of the town, which had been rigged with bombs by retreating ISIS fighters.
The army, joined by thousands of Shiite militiamen backed and advised by Iran, is five days into an advance on Saddam's home city of Tikrit, by far the biggest target yet in a campaign to roll back last year's advance by ISIS fighters.
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