Strikes broke deadlock in Iraq's Tikrit op: coalition

[WorldNews]

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US-led air support broke the deadlock in Iraq's operation to retake Tikrit from the Islamic State group, a senior military official in the coalition carrying out the strikes said Thursday. "Air support became the key factor in this," the official told AFP by telephone. "That's what enabled us to restart, with the (Iraqi) ground element, the momentum which has led to this success" against IS jihadists, who had held the city north of Baghdad for almost 10 months. Iraqi forces still would have been able to retake Tikrit without that air support, "but it would probably have taken a little longer," the official said.

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