Fighting rages as Iraqi forces enter Islamic State-held Tikrit

Iraqi forces have entered a district of Tikrit, stepping up an offensive launched 10 days ago to wrest the northern city back from jihadists, army officers say.

A major-general told AFP on condition of anonymity that government forces were on Wednesday battling "to cleanse the neighbourhood of Qadisiyah" in Tikrit.

"We were able to control Tikrit military hospital, which is close to the centre of the city," the hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, he said.

"But we are engaging in a very delicate battle because we are not facing fighters on the ground, we are facing booby-trapped terrain and sniper fire. Our movement is slow," the officer said.

He said the forces that entered Qadisiyah on Wednesday morning included army and police, as well as members of the large volunteer force called Popular Mobilisation units.

Iraqi forces have been closing in for days but had largely refrained from entering the city, launching only small-scale operations on the edges of Tikrit and laying siege to it.

Several other military and political sources confirmed that Iraqi forces had retaken control of a significant part of Qadisiyah, a large neighbourhood stretching north of the city centre.

Meanwhile, in the western province of Anbar where greater IS forces are entrenched, seven almost simultaneous suicide car bombs in Ramadi on Wednesday killed at least 10 people and wounded 30, police and medics said.