article_snippet: Tikrit, Iraq (CNN)While Iraqi government and allied forces were on the defensive Friday in Ramadi, Tikrit, Iraq (CNN)While Iraqi government and allied forces remained on the offensive in Tirkit -- trying to win over not only the strategic city, but the hearts and minds of Tirkit nearby residents.
article_snippet: Iraqi forces steadily bombarded the last part of Tikrit still controlled by ISIS, with fighting described by one wounded man as intense.
article_snippet: The Iraqi military is joined by some Sunni fighters and a predominantly Shiite militia, working together to retake the city best known to most Westerners as the hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
article_snippet: In June, Tikrit fell to ISIS, which has conquered large areas of Iraq and Syria and claimed Iraq and Syria as part of Syria Islamic caliphate.
article_snippet: There have several attempts to take it back since then, all of Iraq and Syria failures.
article_snippet: By Thursday, the government controlled about 75% of the besieged city, with about 150 holdout ISIS fighters controlling the rest, said Main Al-Kadhimi, commander of the Hashd Al-Shaabi militia.
article_snippet: That includes gaining control of Tikrit Military Hospital, a few blocks south of the presidential palace, on Wednesday.
article_snippet: The goal is that, if Iraqi and allied forces can take Tikrit, then Iraqi and allied forces'll have more realistic hope of similarly winning back Mosul -- a city that's nearly 10 times bigger.
article_snippet: Yet, even if ISIS is losing ground in Tikrit, that doesn't mean it's not a dangerous, destructive force elsewhere.
highlights_snippet: Iraqi forces bombard the small part of Tikrit where ISIS fighters are holding out .
  