Iraqi forces halt Tikrit offensive to allow residents to leave

Operations by Iraqi forces to capture Tikrit from Islamic State militants have been temporarily halted to allow civilians to leave the city, the country's interior minister said.

Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban said the offensive, which started early this month, has achieved 90% of its objectives and squeezed the militants into a small part of the city center.

Speaking Monday, al-Ghabban said that extremists from the Islamic State, also known as ISIS and ISIL, had booby-trapped buildings in the center of the city and that Iraqi forces, backed by Shiite militias and Iranian advisers, had slowed their push to reduce their casualties, protect the infrastructure and allow residents to leave.

He did not give a time frame for when operations will resume, and said the matter is being "left to the field commanders."

On Monday it was announced that Kurdish forces in Iraq are investigating possible chemical weapons attacks by ISIL on Dec. 26 and Jan. 28.

Gen. Aziz Wesi, the official in charge of a Kurdish special forces brigade, told journalists that authorities declined to immediately discuss the attacks when they happened for fear of causing a panic.

The purported attacks resemble a claim by Kurdish authorities in Iraq on Saturday that they have evidence that ISIL used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon against peshmerga fighters in a Jan. 23 truck suicide attack.Their claims were not immediately verified by international authorities. ISIL has not commented.

Iraqi forces entered Tikrit on Wednesday in the first major battle against ISIL fighters who took over much of northern Iraq last summer. Retaking the city is considered a test for Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who assumed office in September. He has said that ISIL must be stopped "for our own sake."

Around 80 miles north of Baghdad, Tikrit is the hometown of the dictator Saddam Hussein, who was executed at the end of 2006. Most of the city's 260,000 residents have already fled, but Iraqi officials have estimated that around 10% are trapped inside.

On Saturday, Iraqi government leaders predicted ISIL fighters in the city will be defeated in two or three days.

Bakr Mohammed and five family members escaped Tikrit by giving $600 to ISIL fighters who were guarding a checkpoint leading out of the city. He said ISIL is using his neighbors who couldn't leave as human shields to slow down the militias and Iraqi forces.

"The Islamic State started preventing residents from leaving the city once they realized that the Iraqi government was launching an operation," he said.

Hussein's tomb has been virtually leveled in the fight for control of Tikrit. Associated Press video from the village of Ouja, just south of the city, shows all that remains are the support columns that held up the roof.

Contributing: Ammar Al Shamary and John Dyer; Associated Press