Thousands of Iraqi troops backed by tanks, warplanes and helicopter gunships have launched their biggest counteroffensive yet against ISIS militants in Tikrit.
There have been conflicting reports as to just how much headway the Iraqi military has made in its advance on Tikrit - the hometown of Saddam Hussein which fell to the insurgents on June 11.
Following two weeks of demoralising defeats, the military has claimed to have regained control of the northern city - but the rebels have insisted they are still in charge.
As the "large military operation" started, Staff Lieutenant General Sabah Fatlawi warned the insurgents they had two choices: "flee or be killed".
Witnesses reported heavy clashes as troops moved in from the west.
Iraqi forces advance on Tikrit from the direction of Samarra in the south Troops in helicopters landed at a strategically located university campus, with sporadic clashes reported throughout the day.
Prime minister Nouri al Maliki's security spokesman said warplanes were targeting insurgents there.
Lieutenant General Qassem Atta said security forces were also now in full control of a key road from Baghdad to Samarra, between the capital and Tikrit.
He said there was coordination with the US, which has deployed special operations forces to Iraq, over "studying important targets", without elaborating.
Sky's Senior Correspondent Michelle Clifford, who is in Baghdad, said if the recapture of Tikrit is true, "it would not only be a strategic but a symbolically significant victory".
Special operations forces hunting down ISIS militants "The government is desperate to portray this as a victory because of the humiliating capitulation by the Iraqi forces in the early days of the insurgency," she added.
Twenty security personnel - nine soldiers and 11 police officers - were killed in clashes on Saturday in three areas southwest of Baghdad, doctors said.
Top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani has urged Iraq's political leaders to unite and form a new government as the new parliament elected on April 30 convenes on Tuesday.
World leaders have insisted on a political settlement among Iraq's Shia Arab, Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities.
Mr al Maliki, who has publicly focused on a military response to the crisis, has acknowledged that political measures are also necessary.
The foundations of Iraq 'are under threat' On Saturday, Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said in Damascus: "Russia will not remain passive to the attempts by some groups to spread terrorism in the region.
"The situation is very dangerous in Iraq and the foundations of the Iraqi state are under threat."
Baghdad has agreed to buy more than a dozen Sukhoi warplanes from Russia and Belarus in a deal that could be worth up to $500m (£295m).
Iraqi state TV quoted Lt Gen Atta as saying Sukhoi jets had arrived, without specifying how many.
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