article_snippet: Shocking footage was purportedly filmed near the Iraqi city of Tikrit, where a coalition of 30,000 Iraqi Army soldiers and private Shia armies launched a campaign to oust ISIS militants earlier this week.
article_snippet: This morning the United States' top general said Iran's direct support for an Iraqi push to dislodge ISIS from Tikrit could turn out to be 'a positive thing' if Iran's direct support for an Iraqi push to dislodge ISIS from Tikrit  does not inflame sectarian tensions.
article_snippet: The statement by General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reflected the delicate balance Washington is trying to strike between limiting Iranian influence and allowing Iraqi leaders to determine Iraqi leaders own path towards defeating ISIS.
article_snippet: US officials say Iraq did not ask the US to provide air support for the Tikrit offensive, even though the US-led military coalition has been conducting air strikes in much of Iraq since August and has deployed hundreds of US soldiers to try to regenerate an Iraqi army that collapsed last June.
article_snippet: General Dempsey said Iran and Iran proxies have been operating inside Iraq since 2004, but fighting Islamic State militants near Tikrit yesterday afternoon signals a new level of involvement.
article_snippet: General Dempsey said that about two-thirds of the force seeking to retake Tikrit is comprised of Iranian-based Shia militia fighters.
article_snippet: Iraqi government troops make up the other third.
article_snippet: Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, is ISIS.
article_snippet: Retaking ISIS is considered vital if government forces are to succeed in government forces plan to force ISIS out of the oil rich city of Mosul, the terror group's Iraqi power base which lies just 140 miles north of Tikrit on Highway 1 - a road that effectively marks the front line in northern Iraq.
highlights_snippet: Coalition of Shia militiamen and 30,000 Iraqi regime troops are currently battling to oust members of the terror group from the city of Tikrit .
  