Intense fighting in Tikrit has mostly flattened former Iraq dictator, Saddam Hussein’s once fancy tomb. This has happened during the Iraqi security troops, along with Shia militias attempting to get rid of the terrorist group Isis as they all battle to be in control of the town. In fact, all that appears to be left of the tomb are support columns shearing up a roof.
More and stronger battles were going on both north and south of Tikrit, where Saddam once lived. The goal is to get to the center of town in the next two days. Instead of all the posters and photos of the former dictator, there are rubble and lots of photos of military leaders and Shia military flags in this mainly Sunni community. Some show Major General Qassem Soleimani, an influential Iranian general who is advising the Iraqi Shia soldiers at the battlefield.
A captain in the Shia military says that one reason they are in this area is due to Saddam’s tomb. The Isis terrorists have placed bombs there and tried to trap people there. Therefore, the Shia military aim to tear it down and get rid of the problem.
Isis has been in control of the area since the month of June last year, as they undertook a speedy offensive that put Mosul, Iraq’s second biggest town, to be under Isis control. The fighters were aided in their takeover of the north of Iraq by Saddam loyalists, which include veterans of the military that had asked for help from the Sunnis who considered themselves victims due to Baghdad’s Shia-controlled government.
Isis had previously said that the dictator’s tomb was already destroyed, but those claims were not true and it was merely plundered, burned, and thereby damaged in the process.
Saddam’s body was buried in the tomb in 2007 after he was executed after trial in 2006. He was captured by the US military back in 2003. A special Iraqi tribunal convicted him and hung him after he was found guilty of committing crimes against humanity. The compound had included a marble octagon in the center and a fancy chandelier. However, Saddam’s body is no long there. Those loyal to the former dictator removed it so it wouldn’t be destroyed in the battles. No one knows where it is being kept at the moment.
If the fighters can recapture the town of Tikrit, military officials say it would open up a way to bring an assault against Mosul next month. However, there is concern that the Shia military will take revenge on all the places that are mainly where the Sunni live. These fighters are suspected of destroying Sunni cities captured from Isis; thereby citizens couldn’t come back because they have nowhere to live.
The Sunni fighters are forming up with Iraqi army members battling in Tikrit and this is said to be vital so they can both defeat the militants in the area.
