Iraq launches anti-IS operation north of Baghdad

Iraqi forces have started an operation to combat Islamic State (IS) militants near the city of Tikrit, located northwest of the capital Baghdad, an official said Friday, according to RIA Novosti.

Both troops and air forces have launched "an operation to liberate areas north of the city of Tikrit," Ali Mussa, an adviser to the governor of Salahuddin province, told Agence France-Presse.

The IS, also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), seized Tikrit, home town of executed president Saddam Hussein, back on June 11.

The jihadist group has fought the Syrian government since 2012 but began attracting worldwide attention this summer as it made rapid territorial gains in western and northern Iraq and declared the creation of an Islamic caliphate.