BAGHDAD — Shiite militia leaders claimed on Monday to have received reassurances from Iraq’s prime minister that there would be no more U.S.-led airstrikes on Tikrit, opening the way for their fighters’ return to the battlefield.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi met with leaders of Iraq’s “popular mobilization units” Sunday to discuss the ground offensive to reclaim Tikrit from Islamic State militants, his spokesman Saad al-Hadithi confirmed. Hadithi, though, said that a final decision on the strikes had not been taken.
Any decision to halt the strikes to allow forces dominated by Shiite militiamen to march into Tikrit is likely to rile Washington, which has been wary of being perceived as aiding the Iranian-backed paramilitary groups. It would mean that the airstrikes had essentially been used to ease the militiamen’s path into the city, after their initial offensive stalled two weeks ago.
Iraq has been struggling to stem the internal fallout from the decision to request the U.S.-led strikes for the battle. Iraqi field commanders had raised concerns about a lack of manpower after the popular mobilization units — a loose affiliations of largely Shiite militias and volunteers that are fighting the Islamic State and are hostile to the United States — refused to fight in Tikrit under American air cover.
