Tikrit

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Looking north along the Tigris towards Saddam's Presidential palace in April 2003

Tikrit (تكريت, Tikrīt also transliterated as Takrit or Tekrit) is a town in Iraq, located 140 km northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris river (at 34.61°N, 43.68°E). The town, with an estimated population in 2002 of about 28,900, is the administrative center of the province of Salah ad Din.

1 History
2 2003
3 2005
4 In popular culture
5 See also
6 References
7 Sources and External links

[edit] History

The town is first mentioned in the "Fall of Assyria Chronicle", as being a refuge for the Babylonian king Nabopolassar during his attack on the city of Assur in 615 BCE.

Tikrit is usually identified with the Mesopotamian Birtha.^[1]

As Tagrit, it was the seat of the Maphrian of the Monophysites.

Over a thousand years ago, it possessed a fortress and a large Christian monastery. It was renowned as a centre for the production of woolen textiles.

The Arab Uqaylid Dynasty took hold of Tikrit in 1036.

Around 1137, the legendary Kurdish leader Saladin was born there; his many achievements include defending Egypt against the Christian Crusaders and recapturing Jerusalem in 1187. The modern province of which Tikrit is the capital is named after him.

The town, and much of Iraq with it, was devastated in the 14th century by the Mongol invasion under Hulagu.

In September 1917, British forces captured the town during a major advance against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

The town is now perhaps best known for being the birthplace in 1937 of the late President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, who frequently liked to compare himself with Saladin. Many senior members of the Iraqi government during his rule were drawn from Saddam's own Tikriti tribe, the Al Bu Nasir, as were members of his Iraqi Republican Guard, chiefly because Saddam apparently felt that he was most able to rely on relatives and allies of his family. The Tikriti domination of the Iraqi government became something of an embarrassment to Saddam and prompted him in 1977 to abolish the use of surnames in Iraq to conceal the fact that so many of his key supporters bore the same surname, al-Tikriti (as did Saddam himself). Saddam Hussein was buried near Tikrit in his hometown of Owja following his hanging on December 30, 2006.

[edit] 2003

In the opening weeks of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, many observers speculated that Saddam would return to Tikrit as his "last stronghold". The town was subjected to intense aerial bombardment meant to throw Saddam's Republican Guard out of the city. On April 13, 2003 several thousand US Marines and other coalition members aboard 300 armored vehicles converged on the town, meeting little or no resistance. With the fall of Tikrit, U.S. Major General Stanley McChrystal said, "I would anticipate that the major combat operations are over."

However, during the subsequent occupation Tikrit became the scene of a number of insurgent attacks against the occupation forces. It is commonly regarded as being the northern angle of the "Sunni Triangle" within which the National Resistance is at its most intense. In June 2003, Abid Hamid Mahmud, Saddam Hussein's Presidential Secretary and the Ace of Diamonds on the most wanted 'Deck of Cards,' was captured in a joint raid by special operations forces and the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment of 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division.

After the fall of Baghdad, Saddam Hussein was also sheltered in and around Tikrit by relatives, supporters and allies for a period of about six months. During his final period in hiding, he lived just outside the town of ad-Dawr, fifteen kilometres south of Tikrit on the eastern bank of the Tigris, a few kilometers southeast of his hometown of Owja. He was captured by Coalition forces, primarily the U.S. 4th Infantry Division, on December 13, 2003.

During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, AFN Iraq ("Freedom Radio") broadcast propaganda and entertainment within Tikrit, among other locations.

[edit] 2005

On November 22, 2005, 1st Brigade, U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, handed over control of Saddam Hussein's primary palace complex in Tikrit to the governor of Salah ah Din Province, who represented the Iraqi government. The palace complex had served as a headquarters for U.S. 4th Infantry Division, U.S. 1st Infantry Division, and 42nd Infantry Division. The palace complex now serves several purposes for the Iraqi police and army, including headquarters and jails. The U.S. Military has subsequently moved their operations to al Sahra Airfield, now COB Speicher, northwest of Tikrit.

[edit] In popular culture

"The Birthday Palace," as it is known to U.S. troops, is the place of the famous clips of Saddam firing a rifle into the air from a balcony overlooking his troops. It is a smaller palace known to Iraqis as Mahmood, used by Saddam and his regime for parades and troop reviews. It can be found on the northwest of Tikrit on Saddam Boulevard.

In the hit TV series Lost, Sayid Jarrah, a former soldier in the Republican Guard, was born in Tikrit.

Al Sahra Airfield: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/al-sahra.htm