BAGHDAD // ISIL militants have set fire to oil wells northeast of Tikrit in a bid to obstruct the onslaught of Shiite militia fighters and Iraqi soldiers trying to drive them out.
A military source said the extremists ignited the fire at the Ajil oilfield to shield themselves from attack by Iraqi military helicopters.
The offensive is the biggest Iraqi forces have yet mounted against ISIL, which has declared a so-called Islamic caliphate on captured territory in Iraq and Syria.
Black smoke could be seen rising from Ajil oilfield since Wednesday afternoon.
Control of oilfields has played an important part in funding ISIL, even if it lacks the technical expertise to run them at full capacity.
Before the militants took over Ajil last June, the field produced 25,000 barrels per day of crude that were shipped to the Kirkuk refinery to the north-east, as well as 150 million cubic feet of gas per day piped to the government-controlled Kirkuk power station.
An engineer at the site, about 35 km northeast of Tikrit, said in July that ISIL fighters were pumping lower volumes of oil from Ajil, fearing that their primitive extraction techniques could ignite the gas.
Bombing in August damaged the Ajil field’s control room, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The outcome of the battle for Tikrit, the home town of executed Sunni president Saddam Hussein, will determine whether and how fast the Iraqi forces can advance further north and attempt to win back Mosul, the biggest city under ISIL rule.
The army, backed by Shiite militia and Kurdish peshmerga fighters, has yet to reconquer and secure any city held by ISIL, despite seven months of airstrikes by a US-led coalition, as well as weapons supplies and strategic support from neighbouring Iran.
Tehran, not Washington, has been the key player in the current offensive. Iranian Revolutionary Guard general Qassem Suleimani has been seen directing operations on the eastern flank, and Iranian-backed militia fighters have led much of the operation.
Soldiers and militia are also advancing along the Tigris river from the north and south of Tikrit, preparing for a joint offensive which is expected in coming days.
They are likely to attack first the towns of Al Dour and Al Alam to the south and north of Tikrit, but their approach has been slowed by roadside bombs, snipers and suicide bomb attacks.
An ISIL suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden tanker on Wednesday night into a camp on the eastern edge of Al Dour, killing a leader of the Iranian-backed Asaib Ahl Al Haq, Madi Al Kinani and four others, a military source said.
Al Ahd, the militia’s television channel, confirmed Kinani’s death. He was buried in the Shiite holy city of Najaf, south of the capital Baghdad.
A police source in Salahuddin province, where Tikrit is located, said an eight-vehicle convoy of ISIL insurgents attacked Iraqi forces at dawn on Thursday in Al Muaibidi, east of Al Alam. The source said the army returned fire, killing four militants and burning two of their cars.
An online video published on Thursday purported to show ISIL militants in Tikrit and Al Alam, taunting their attackers.
In Baghdad, 10 people were killed on Thursday in a series of bomb attacks and mortar fire.
The deadliest incidents were in the southeastern, Sunni neighbourhood of Nahrawan where three people were killed by a bomb in a market, and the northern district of Rashidiya where three soldiers were killed by two roadside bombs.
* Reuters
