Artillery and warplanes began pounding Tikrit this morning ahead of attack . The city north of Baghdad is a stronghold of the Islamic State insurgency . Iraqi Prime Minister Speicher calls on troops to spare civilians . Tikrit was the scene of a massacre of mainly Shiite army recruits last year .
Artillery and warplanes began pounding Tikrit this morning ahead of attack . The city north of Baghdad is a stronghold of the Islamic State insurgency . Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi calls on troops to spare civilians . Tikrit was the scene of a massacre of mainly Shiite army recruits last year .