State television reported the governor's office had been recaptured, with plans now being made to move north and re-take djinn-infested Mosul
... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
, Iraq's second-largest city.
A spokesperson for ISIS, however, has told the BBC that although there is heavy fighting in the city, it has not yet been re-captured. Iraq's military has denied these claims. The counter offensive was launched over the weekend and included thousands of Iraqi troops backed by tanks and air power attacking the city from four directions, according to state TV.
The Iraqi military is reportedly being supported by allied Sunni rustics and Shia militias. The counter offensive comes following weeks of recruitment in Iraq of Shia men to fight the predominantly Sunni myrmidons.
Following the capture of Tikrit, Army front man Lieutenant-General Sabah Fatlawi warned ISIS fighters they "now have two choices - flee or be killed".
Separately, Iraq's most influential Shia holy man, Grand Ayatollah Sistani, called for a new prime minister to be appointed by Tuesday to try to defuse the country's political crisis and create a government more inclusive of Iraq's minorities.
Iraq's Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014...
is under building pressure to form a unity government, he is seen by many as having precipitated the crisis through sectarian policies that have pushed Iraq's Sunni minority into the hands of ISIS Death Eaters.
Meanwhile,
...back at the precinct house, Sergeant Maloney wasn't buying it. It was just too pat. The whole thing smelled phony, kind of like a dead mackeral but without the scales...
the Archbishop of Irbil, in northern Iraq, has told the BBC that more than 40,000 Christians have fled villages near Mosul in recent days after ISIS snuffies attacked the two large Christian settlements of Karakosh and Karamlaish.
The refugees are reportedly fleeing into the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, which closed its border with Iraq on Sunday citing the need to protect its own stability.