If civilians do start to return they would not only face threats of vengeance from Shiite militias and even from local police (who were also endangered by the IS fighters in Tikrit) but also from tribal conflicts. There have already been some retaliatory murders apparently – local police acted against residents who had been affiliated with the IS group, who they say were part of IS sleeper cells inside Tikrit even before the city fell to the extremists.
The Shiite militias who control the largest part of Tikrit say that they're continuing to investigate any leads that might reveal who here was affiliated with the IS group. Ali al-Moussawi, who is associated with the Najbaa brigades says that fighters under his command found identity cards and passports that belong to members of the extremist group. “Some of the passports belong to foreigners,” he noted.
Al-Moussawi said that they had also found planning documents that indicated how the IS group were administrating the city and two days ago they discovered a secret tunnel. He thinks that IS fighters used the tunnel to move around the city and to hide from opposing forces. The tunnel had been rigged with explosives, a trap set for al-Moussawi's men, but they managed to defuse the bombs.
This is another impediment to the return of civilians to Tikrit. Local police and special army units are hunting for bombs and booby traps, in the form of improved explosive devices, throughout the city. Not a day goes by without finding new bombs and they believe there are hundreds still hidden.
Meanwhile Majid Abu Wisam, who is originally from Tikrit, is conducting a different kind of clean up operation, a far more mundane one. Together with a group of other locals, they are trying to clean the city up. And they are more hopeful than many. Despite the absence of other civilians and the destruction, Abu Wisam says he still believes the city will be rebuilt.
“It will be as beautiful as it was before,” he says optimistically. “But it will take some time,” he admits.
Comments are closed.