Iraqi Shia militia, who helped
recapture Tikrit from Islamic State (IS), are being pulled out of the
city amid reports of violence and
looting.The militia made up the vast majority of pro-government forces that retook the city over the past week.
But people in Tikrit say the city's liberators have since stolen cars and ransacked government buildings.
Tikrit was captured by Islamic State in June last year in what was an important strategic victory for the group.
The city was ravaged by the fighting that followed and now sits largely empty.
Mob action
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has ordered the arrest of anyone caught looting, but reports suggest the actions of the pro-government paramilitaries have gone beyond theft.A correspondent for Reuters reported seeing an Islamic State fighter surrounded by a mob and stabbed to death, as well as the corpse of another being dragged by a car.
Ahmed al-Kraim, head of the city's Salahuddin Province council, told the news agency that mobs had burned down "hundreds of houses".
Government officials have attempted to distance the army from the reports, blaming the violence and looting on local Sunni tribal fighters.
Ahmed Salim Noreldin, an Iraqi soldier, told the BBC that IS militants had booby-trapped the streets with IEDs as they retreated, leaving the doors of homes and shops open on their way.
Mahmoud Al-Sadi, a captain in Iraq's federal police command, said that soldiers were attempting to defuse the bombs to allow residents to return.
Iraqi army officials say Tikrit is now completely free of IS. "The nearest IS position is 45km (27 miles) away," said Captain Al-Sadi. "There are no resistance pockets inside Tikrit."
The offensive launched on 2 March to take back Tikrit involved some 30,000 fighters, two-thirds of them from the Popular Mobilisation (Hasid Shaabi) - a force comprising dozens of Iranian-backed Shia militia.
Source:BBC

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