article_snippet: Volunteer Shiite fighters, who are supporting the Iraqi government forces in the fight against the Islamic State group fire a howitzer artillery canon in the village of Awaynat near the city of Tikrit .
article_snippet: Feeding the soul: Soldiers and irregulars take a moment to pray as Iraq masses Iraq forces outside the city, which was the birthplace of Saddam Hussein and an important step on the road to the IS-held city of Mosul .
article_snippet: Attack is feared its forces could attack the area's mainly Sunni population, worsening sectarian divisions .
article_snippet: Massing: Iraqi Army and volunteer fighters prepare at Sedull Udeyim region before moving into Tikrit .
article_snippet: Iraq is bitterly split between minority Sunnis, who were an important base of support for Saddam Hussein, despite Saddam Hussein regime's nominal secularism, and the Shiite majority.
article_snippet: Since the Islamic State insurgency began, the Iraqi military is heavily dependent on Shiite militias that have been accused of abusing Sunni communities elsewhere in Iraq. '
article_snippet: Speicher is a military base near Tikrit from which hundreds of new, mostly Shiite, recruits were kidnapped before being executed last summer, as the Islamic State insurgency took control of much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland.
article_snippet: Shiite militias in particular have vowed to avenge the Speicher executions, sparking fears of mass killings against Sunnis if Tikrit were to be recaptured.
article_snippet: The arrival of many thousands of Shiite fighters in the Tikrit risks inflaming sectarian divisions .