BAGHDAD — Underscoring the Iraqi government’s determination to control the timetable and tactics in the battle against the Islamic State, the country’s defense minister declared on Wednesday that the most challenging operation, driving the militants from Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, would be “planned, timed and executed by Iraqis.”
The comments from the minister, Khaled al-Obeidi, came a day after tensions surfaced in the Iraqi-American alliance against the group, and as Islamic State militants used guerrilla tactics to hold off a major government effort to retake the city of Tikrit for a third day. Thousands of people have fled their homes in and around Tikrit, United Nations officials said.
Amid hopes that the Tikrit offensive could become the first step in a broader effort to seize back territory from Islamic State fighters, Iraqi officials have bridled at estimates by some American officials that the Iraqi forces would not be ready to move against Mosul for months. American officials had also expressed concerns about the leading role of Iranian military officials and Iranian-aligned Shiite militias in the new offensive.
But as the battle continued in Tikrit, American officials, as well as some of their Iraqi counterparts, insisted that the two countries’ relationship was healthy and that close military collaboration would continue against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, ISIL or by the Arabic acronym Daesh.
Even though United States warplanes are not participating in the Tikrit battle, as they have in others, the Iraqi government still welcomes continued international assistance, said Ali al-Alaaq, a close aide to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.
“Today in Salahuddin, we were hoping that the Americans could participate in the battle against ISIS, but we have launched against ISIS alone,” he said. , “We are expecting that the support will be continued, especially since we are facing a very important task in Mosul and other cities in Iraq.”
American officials, too, tried to play down signs of strain between the United States and Iraq.
“The United States is proud of its partnership with Iraqi forces, which has made huge impacts in weakening Daesh, and we are looking forward to more coordination with the Iraqi forces,” the United States ambassador to Iraq, Stuart E. Jones, told reporters after meeting with Adnan al-Zurufi, the governor of Najaf, in southern Iraq.
He appeared to be reassuring Iraqi officials that the United States did not oppose the use of Shiite militias known as popular mobilization forces. Those militias have played a crucial role in the ground fight since many regular army units disintegrated as the Islamic State seized much of northern and western Iraq last June.
“Our direct coordination is with the Iraqi security forces, and we count on the security forces to coordinate with the popular mobilization forces and other forces that are cooperating in the fight against Daesh,” he said.
On Wednesday, new militia reinforcements — augmenting a force that began with about 20,000 militia fighters and 10,000 regular soldiers — arrived to the outskirts of towns near Tikrit, Al Dour, Al Alam and Albu Aji. But snipers, roadside bombs and other guerrilla tactics prevented them from advancing further, according to military officials in Samarra, another city in Salahuddin Province. A major bridge crossing to Tikrit from the town of Tuz Khurmato had been wired with bombs by the Islamic State, they said.
United Nations officials said that about 24,000 people had been driven from their homes in the province during a week of fighting.
One Sunni lawmaker, Maysoon al-Damluji, said that she supported an offensive in Tikrit, and noted that Sunnis there and in the surrounding province of Salahuddin had suffered under the Islamic State. Her only concern, she said, was the Iranian leadership.
“We have enough Iraqis with military expertise,” Ms. Damluji said.
Separately, Islamic State supporters have been circulating a report online that an American member of the militant group took part in a suicide truck bombing on Monday on the outskirts of Samarra, the jumping-off point for the Iraqi assault on Tikrit.
According to the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks militants’ online activity, the message referred to the bomber only as Abu Dawoud al-Amriki and said that his suicide attack had killed dozens of Shiites, referring to them with slurs against the sect. Iraqi military officials confirmed there had been a truck bombing in Samarra on Monday, and said it had killed three militia volunteers and wounded 12, with no information about the bomber’s identity.
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