Iraqi forces besieging a few die-hard jihadists from the Islamic State group in Tikrit will have liberated the city within three days, a spokesman told AFP Saturday.
Karim al-Nuri, a top leader from the Badr militia and the spokesman of the volunteer Popular Mobilisation units, said it would take no more than "72 hours" to flush out holdout IS fighters.
The Popular Mobilisation units account for the bulk of the manpower involved in the two-week-old operation to wrest back Tikrit, alongside army, police, militia and tribal forces.