ISIS thugs were making a fast and furious retreat from Saddam Hussein’s birthplace Wednesday, ripping off civilian cars to escape Iraqi forces.  A wave of more than 3,000 Iraqi Army soldiers and 20,000 allied Shiite militiamen stormed Tikrit in Iraq’s Salahuddin province, reclaiming what had fallen into Islamic State hands.  “The terrorists are seizing the cars of civilians trying to leave the city and they are trying to make a getaway,” Kheyon Rasheed, a Salahuddin police official, told state-run Iraqiyya TV.  The fight for Tikrit is a crucial test for Iraqi forces trying to rebound from a series of defeats last year that allowed the bloodthirsty religious fanatics to seize a third of the country and set up a caliphate. A victory would also reinforce a supply pipeline back to Baghdad, a strategic boon as Iraqi military officials gear up for a battle in Mosul — the country’s second-largest city, which remains an ISIS stronghold.  Iraqi forces invaded Tikrit through Qadisiyya, fanning out for street-by-street combat that appeared to overwhelm ISIS jihadists, according to reports.  U.S. military officials have that said a coordinated military mission to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, likely will begin in April or May and involve up to 25,000 Iraqi troops. But the Americans have cautioned that if the Iraqis are not ready, the offensive could be delayed.  Iraqi forces retook the town of Alam, which borders Tikrit, on Tuesday, sealing off Tikrit to prepare for an offensive inside the city. Hidden bombs and snipers had slowed the troops’ progress.  Iranian military advisers have been helping guide Iraqi forces in their advance on Tikrit. Among those directing operations is Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force. The overt Iranian role and the prominence of Shiite militias in the campaign have raised fears of possible sectarian cleansing should Tikrit, an overwhelmingly Sunni city, fall to the government troops.  The U.S. says its allied coalition carrying out airstrikes targeting the extremists has not been involved in the Tikrit offensive.  The Islamic State group holds about a third of Iraq and neighboring Syria in its self-declared caliphate.  ON A MOBILE DEVICE? WATCH THE VIDEO HERE.
Iraqi soldiers and Shiite militiamen entered the Islamic State-held city of Tikrit on Wednesday, an official and a witness said.