Iraqi forces enter ISIL-held Tikrit after 10-day push

Iraqi forces have entered Tikrit, dodging bombs and sniper fire in search of their biggest victory yet against embattled jihadists who tried to light new fires elsewhere in Iraq and Syria.
      
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has suffered stinging defeats in the heart of its self-proclaimed "caliphate" recently, but its ultraviolent ideology has inspired attacks and recruits globally.
      
With ISIL brutality and population displacement reaching new highs, Washington sought increased powers from the US Congress to take on a group threatening to reshape the Middle East.
      
However, it was without direct support from the US-led coalition's air campaign that Iraqi government and allied forces punched into parts of Tikrit on Wednesday, marking a new phase in a 10-day drive to wrest the city back from ISIL.
      
A combination of army, police and volunteer forces moved into northern and southern Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and a main ISIL stronghold.
      
A major general told AFP on condition of anonymity that government forces were battling "to cleanse the neighbourhood of Qadisiyah" in Tikrit.
      
"But we are engaging in a very delicate battle because we are not facing fighters on the ground, we are facing booby-trapped terrain and sniper fire. Our movement is slow," he said.
      
An army colonel said forces coming from another direction had also retaken the main hospital on the city's southern edge.
      
Early in the offensive, in which up to 30,000 men were initially involved while ISIL is believed to have just a few hundred fighters inside Tikrit, most outlying areas were reconquered.
                      
The town of...