Iraq Reverses Decision On Tikrit Air Support.

The Iraqi Government has reversed its decision to sideline the United States from the offensive to recapture the city of Tikrit from the Islamic State: a move that has prompted the withdrawal of the Shia militias that were spearheading the operation.

Iraq Reverses Decision On Tikrit Air Support.

The US-led Combined Joint Task Force Operation 'Inherent Resolve' (CJTF-OIR) announced the decision on 25 March, when it said it had commenced "operations to support Iraqi security forces in Tikrit" at the request of Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi.

"The coalition is now providing direct support to Iraqi security forces conducting operations to expel [the Islamic State] from the city. CJTF-OIR is providing air strikes, airborne intelligence capabilities, and advise-and-assist support to Iraqi security force headquarters elements," it said.

US officials revealed at the outset of the offensive in early March that the Iraqi government had not requested the coalition's support and that Iranian-backed Shia militias made up around two thirds of the forces involved.

General Lloyd Austin, the commander of US Central Command, told the US Senate Armed Services Committee on 26 March that the Iraqi government had requested US support after the Iranian-backed effort to recapture Tikrit stalled.

"These forces were not being controlled by the government of Iraq, they did not have a coherent scheme of manoeuvre or command and control, they did not have precision fires to support this effort, so trying to go about the difficult task of clearing a place like Tikrit without that caused them to stall," he said.

Gen Austin said the US insisted that the Shia militias be withdrawn before it provided support. "We had to know who exactly was on the ground, we had to be able to deconflict our fires," he said. As a result of the militias' withdrawal, around 4,000 members of the Iraqi special forces and federal police were left to clear the city, he added.

He said that the Iraqi security forces had not only planned but rehearsed a "credible scheme of manoeuvre" to clear Tikrit.

Shia militia commanders had previously insisted that they did not need US support. "Some of the weaklings in the army ... say we need the Americans, while we say we do not need the Americans," Hadi al-Amiri, the commander of the Badr Organisation's paramilitary wing, told journalists on 22 March.