On June 11 , 2014 , during the Northern Iraq offensive , the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant took control of the city . Hours later , the Iraqi Army made an attempt to recapture the city , which resulted in heavy fighting . On June 12 , ISIL executed at least 1,566 Iraqi Air Force cadets from Camp Speicher at Tikrit . At the time of the attack there were between 4,000 and 11,000 unarmed cadets in the camp . The Iraqi government blamed the massacre on both ISIL and members of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region . By July 2014 , government forces had withdrawn from Tikrit
ISIL executed
Camp Speicher massacre
Tikrit