US drones over Baghdad as troops battle for Tikrit

BAGHDAD: Armed American drones were flying over Baghdad to defend US military advisers and diplomats as Iraqi forces readied a massive operation Saturday to take back Saddam Hussein’s hometown from militants. Thousands of soldiers were advancing on Tikrit
A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “a few” armed drones were being used over Baghdad as a precaution to safeguard Americans, but they will not be used for offensive action against the militants.
The Pentagon confirmed that among the manned and unmanned US aircraft flying over Iraq to carry out surveillance, some were carrying bombs and missiles.
“The reason that some of those aircraft are armed is primarily for force protection reasons, now that we have introduced into the country some military advisers whose objective will be to operate outside the confines of the embassy,” spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said.
The US flights come despite the insistence of Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki on Friday that “Baghdad is safe” from militant assault.
Al-Maliki was backed in that view by retired US general James Conway, who said that “the worst is over” in the offensive, as the militants would not be able to penetrate Baghdad or the predominantly Shiite south or Kurdish north.
Although they initially wilted in the face of the offensive in majority Sunni areas north and west of Baghdad, the security forces have appeared to perform more capably in recent days and on Saturday were readying what would be their biggest fightback so far.
Thousands of soldiers, backed by air cover, tanks and bomb disposal units, were advancing on now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein’s hometown Tikrit, which fell to insurgents on June 11.
“A large military operation started today to clear Tikrit of ISIL,” Staff Lt. Gen. Sabah Fatlawi told AFP, confidently adding: “ISIL fighters now have two choices — flee or be killed.”
But amid calls for unity, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani said Baghdad could no longer object to Kurdish self-rule in Kirkuk and other towns from which federal forces withdrew in the face of the militant advance. “Now, this (issue)... is achieved,” he said, referring to a constitutional article meant to address the Kurds’ decades-old ambition to incorporate the territory in their autonomous region in the north over the objections of successive governments in Baghdad.