Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi revealed that the Iraqi army will launch a military operation to restore the city of Tikrit, in a period of time that will not exceed a month, while he was less decisive with respect to the city of Mosul.
Ebadi said in an interview for ‘Reuters’, “Tikrit, God willing, will be liberated very soon; within a month or less, I hope. But I cannot specify for Mosul. It may be liberated faster than predicted. We do not want to advance into it without planning.”
ISIS militants have been controlling the city of Tikrit, Salahuddin province, (160 kilometers north of Baghdad), in addition to other parts of the province, since the withdrawal of Iraqi forces last June.
Al-Abadi has criticized the "slowness" of the United States-led international coalition against ISIS terrorists in providing military support to his army, AFP reports.
"The international coalition is very slow in its support and training of the army" in Iraq, Mr Abadi said during an official visit to Cairo."This support is very slow but in the last two weeks there has been an acceleration," he said, however, calling for a "further acceleration" in the assistance provided to the Iraqi army.
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