Iraqi forces have suspended the brief offensive to recapture Tikrit, the city of dictator Saddam Hussein, due to the strenuous resistance of the Islamic State guerrillas, who have also threatened to attack the Americans "everywhere". In Geneva, meanwhile, the UN refugee agency announced a major humanitarian relief operation to supply more than half a million people displaced in the north of the war-torn country with food. Heartened by the battle to retake the Mosul dam after two months of defeats, the Iraqi army, backed by Shia militias, launched a shortly before dawn offensive towards Tikrit, 130 kilometers north of Baghad, which had become a stronghold of the Sunni minority. But Iraqi staff officials said mid-day Tuesday that the advance had been halted by jihadist guerrillas.
Inhabitants of Tikrit, reached by telephone, said the city is firmly in the hands of Islamic State guerrillas, who are holding positions and patrolling the streets. Thousands of displaced children In the meantime, dramatic figures on refugees are being released. Several thousand children are among 12 Iraqi refugees who have found refuge in a camp in neighboring Syria after crossing the distant border between the two countries. Unicef gave the news. According to operators from the United Nations Children's Organization, for the first time since Yazidi families began arriving at Nawrouz camp (on the outskirts of Al Malikiya) in the last two weeks, the flow of desperate people moving seems to have faded, with no new arrivals registered at the camp in the past two days. However, humanitarian agencies are preparing for further arrivals, expanding the camp's facilities by building additional toilets and improving the water supply.
According to Unicef workers there has been a steady improvement in conditions, as UN agencies have joined forces with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, local charities, the Kurdish Relief Committee and civil society by providing food, water, shelter , clothes and medicines. Even so, however, concerns remain, especially over the poor sanitary conditions in the camp and the urgent need for clean water, especially in the current heat. Aid workers say Yazidi refugees – children in particular – have arrived in Syria in a state of extreme exhaustion after walking long distances in the summer heat. Everyone has a story to tell about their horrific ordeal. The arrival of Yazidi refugees in Syria, UNICEF recalls, comes as a country that continues to face the enormous humanitarian consequences of the country's ongoing civil war, which has affected an estimated 10,8 million people.
Meanwhile, a lightning visit by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to Iraq has been announced. According to sources at Palazzo Chigi, the premier will be in Baghdad during the day and then in Erbil to return to Rome in the evening. All while discussing the methods of intervention, in view of Wednesday's information to the Chamber of Defense Ministers Roberta Pinotti and Foreign Ministers Federica Mogherini. Two air options, with a first leg up to Al Bateen (United Arab Emirates) to be covered with a C-130J of the 46th air brigade in Pisa or with a Boeing KC-767A of the 14th wing stationed at the Pratica di Mare base (Rome). Alternatively, the transport by sea to the Emirates, for the subsequent transfer by plane to Erbil of the weapons intended for the Kurdish peshmerga engaged in recent weeks to counter the advance of the ISIS jihadists. The possibility of a non-stop route to Iraqi Kurdistan with an overflight of Turkish territory is also not excluded. The planning of the Italian intervention, which in these hours is being continuously fine-tuned and refined, also foresees the hypothesis of a transfer of the weapons by sea up to Al Bateen and subsequent transfer onto the C-130Js of the Italian base in the Emirates for the last stretch to Erbil.
