AL RASHID AIR BASE, Iraq Three major Shiite militia groups pulled out of the fight for Tikrit on Thursday, immediately depriving the Iraqi government of thousands of their fighters on the ground even as American warplanes readied for an expected second day of airstrikes against the Islamic State there.
The militia groups, some of which until recently had Iranian advisers with them, pulled out of the Tikrit fight in protest of the American military airstrikes, which began late Wednesday night, insisting that the Americans were not needed to defeat the extremists in Tikrit.
Together the three groups represent as much as a third of the 30,000 fighters on the government side in the offensive against the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS or ISIL, analysts said.
We dont trust the American-led coalition in combating ISIS, said Naeem al-Uboudi, the spokesman for Asaib Ahl al-Haq, one of the three groups which said they would withdraw from the front line around Tikrit. In the past they have targeted our security forces and dropped aid to ISIS by mistake, he said.
One of the leaders of the biggest militias in the fight, the Badr Organization, also criticized the American role and said his group, too, might pull out. We dont need the American-led coalition to participate in Tikrit. Tikrit is an easy battle, we can win it ourselves, said Mueen al-Kadhumi, who is one of the Shiite militia groups top commanders.
We have not yet decided if we will pull out or not, he said. The Badr Brigades leader, Hadi al-Ameri, was shown on Iraqi Television leading the ground fight in Tikrit on Thursday.
The other groups that announced they would boycott the Tikrit operation were Qatab Hizbullah, which like Ashaib Ahl al-Haq is closely aligned and supported by Iran, and the Peace Brigade, the latest name for a militia made of up followers of the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, previously known as the Mahdi Army.
Hakim al-Zamily, one of the leaders of the Sadr group, said his group had warned it would pull out of the Tikrit fight if the Americans were brought in. We dont trust the Americans, they have targeted our forces many times in so-called mistakes, he said.
