Tikrit

The former U.S. Army Chief of Staff Raymond Odierno said the United States has given its leadership in the Middle East to Russia.

"Frankly we have given up our leadership in the region to Russia. It is time for us to reassert our leadership," Odierno told Fox News on Dec. 21.

An Iraqi court on Feb. 18 sentenced 40 men to death over the June 2014 massacre by jihadists and allied militants of hundreds of military recruits in Tikrit, a statement said.

The central criminal court in Baghdad found 40 of 47 defendants guilty of involvement in the "Speicher" massacre, named after the base near where the victims were captured before being executed.

Iraq has exhumed the remains of 470 people believed to have been executed by jihadists near Tikrit last year in what is known as the Speicher massacre, the health minister said May 28.

Iraq has exhumed the remains of 47 people believed to have been massacred by jihadists from mass graves in Tikrit, the human rights ministry's spokesman said April 7.
      
"The number of remains that were exhumed so far is 47, and they were found in 11 mass graves," Kamel Amin told AFP, adding that the number is expected to rise.
      

Iraqi forensic teams began on April 6 excavating 12 suspected mass grave sites thought to hold the corpses of as many as 1,700 soldiers massacred last summer by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants as they swept across northern Iraq.
   

Amnesty International said on April 2 it was investigating reports of serious human rights violations committed by Iraqi government and allied forces in the operation to retake the city of Tikrit.

Iraqi forces have retaken the Salaheddin provincial government headquarters in Tikrit from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a significant advance in the battle to recapture the city, officials said March 31.
      

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Baghdad on March 30 for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other top officials.
      
Ban first met President Fuad Masum and Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and was also due to meet parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi before holding talks with Abadi.
      

US and coalition aircraft bombed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadists in Tikrit on March 25, lending air power to Iraqi forces who have struggled to recapture the town despite Iranian assistance.
      

Washington is providing reconnaissance support for Iraqi forces fighting to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an official said March 24, the first confirmation of American involvement in the operation.