The city of Tikrit , located in the central part of the Saladin Governorate in north of Baghdad and Samarra and lying adjacent to the Tigris River , was lost to ISIL during the huge strides made by the group during its offensive in June 2014 . After its capture , ISIL retaliated with the massacre at Camp Speicher , a nearby training facility for the Iraqi Air Force . After months of preparation and intelligence-gathering , Iraqi forces engaged in offensive operations to fully encircle and subsequently retake the city , starting on 2 March 2015 . The offensive was the largest anti-ISIL operation to date , involving some 20,000 – 30,000 Iraqi forces ( outnumbering ISIL fighters more than 2-to-1 ) , with an estimated 13,000 ISIL fighters present . It was reported that 90 % of the residents of the city left out of fear both of ISIL and retaliatory attacks by Shia militias once the city is captured . As such , most of the residents fled to nearby cities , such as Baghdad and Samarra , or even further to Iraqi Kurdistan or Lebanon
massacre at Camp Speicher
Camp Speicher massacre
Second Battle of Tikrit