The ongoing campaign by the Iraqi government and its allies to reclaim Tikrit from the Islamic State has destroyed the tomb of Iraq's former dictator.
According to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA), the ISIS militants have levelled Saddam Hussein's lavish tomb in the village of Ouja, in the south of Tikrit. AINA reported that the militants have rigged explosives all around the burial palace of the deposed dictator, who was a Sunni Muslim born in Tikrit.
"This is one of the areas where IS militants massed up the most because Saddam's grace is here," Captain Yasser Nu'ma, an official with the Shiite militias, is quoted by the AINA as saying.
"The IS militants' set an ambush for us by planting bombs around the palace," he revealed.
According to AINA, the extremist group claimed to have destroyed Saddam Hussein's tomb last year, but Iraqi officials stated that the tomb was only ransacked and not destroyed. It was also reported that Hussein's loyalists had removed the body over fears that it would be disturbed by the fighting.
The Islamic State has dug in its forces in Tikrit since June, when the Sunni heartland fell to the Islamic State together with Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq. Iraqi government forces last month launched a large offensive, assisted by Shiite militiamen and elements of the Iranian Republican Guard, to reclaim Tikrit as a first step towards recapturing Mosul from ISIS.
Fighting intensified as government forces and Shiite militia forces pushed from the northern and southern regions of the city on Sunday.
The allied forces had set a goal of pushing the Islamic State out of Tikrit within 48 hours. However, the Washington Post reported that the offensive had been stalled as of Wednesday due to heavy casualties suffered by the government forces.
