The much ballyhooed Iraqi government operation to capture the central
city of Tikrit from the Islamic State has stalled three weeks after it
began, amid widespread reports that Shiite Muslim militias and the
government are badly divided over tactics and roiled by claims that the
militias have engaged in war crimes against the local Sunni Muslim
population.
A two-day pause supposedly intended to give the Iraqi government time to
bring up reinforcements has stretched into a week, as reports circulate
that Iraqi government troops and the militias took heavier than
anticipated casualties in their first efforts to dislodge Islamic State
fighters.
-- Mitchell Prothero, "Operation to retake Tikrit from Islamic State stalled by heavy casualties,
discord" (McClatchy Newspapers).