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BySameerN.Yacoub The Associated Press BAGHDAD Iraqi soldiers and allied Shiite militia- men swept into the Is- lamic State-held city of Ti- krit on Wednesday, launch- ing a two-front offensive to squeeze extremists out of Saddam Hussein's home- town in a major test of the troops' resolve. Explosions and heavy gunfire echoed through Ti- krit, a key way station for Iraqi forces trying to ex- pel the militants who hold roughly a third of the coun- try and neighboring Syria. The offensive also will serve as a major crucible for Iraqi forces, which collapsed un- der the extremists' ini- tial offensive last year and now face street-by-street fighting in one of the Is- lamic State group's biggest strongholds. Allied Iraqi forces first entered the city through its northern Qadisiyya neigh- borhood, according to video obtained by The Associated Press. Overhead, an attack helicopter fired missiles as soldiers and militiamen laid down heavy machine gun- fire in the neighborhood's dusty streets as downtown Tikrit loomed in the dis- tance, black smoke rising overhead. Officials quickly estab- lished a supply line through the neighborhood to rein- force troops, Salahuddin po- lice Brig. Kheyon Rasheed told the state-run Iraqiyya television. Authorities of- fered no immediate casu- alty figures, though Iran's state-run Press TV satel- lite channel reported that a mortar attack wounded one of its cameramen there. A local official in Iraq's Salahuddin province con- firmed that Iraqi troops en- tered Qadisiyya and raised the Iraqi flag over Tikrit's general hospital. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief journalists. Later Wednesday, allied forces also swept into Tikrit from the south in a pincer movement to squeeze out militants, though some suggested many already fled in the face of the ad- vance, codenamed "At your service, prophet of Allah." "The terrorists are seiz- ing the cars of civilians trying to leave the city and they are trying to make a getaway," Rasheed said. Tikrit, the capital of Sala- huddin province, sits on the Tigris River about 130 kilo- meters (80 miles) north of Baghdad. Several of Sad- dam's palaces remain there, as do remnants of his now- outlawed Baathist party. Many believe party mem- bers assisted the Islamic State group in its offensive last summer. After the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, insur- gent Baathists in Tikrit launched attacks on Amer- ican forces. The same could happen to incoming Iraqi forces, who already faced sniper fire and heavily mined roads. Taking Tikrit would open a supply line for a fu- ture operation to besiege Mosul, Iraq's second-larg- est city that remains under Islamic State control. U.S. military officials have that said a mission to retake Mo- sul likely will begin in April or May and involve up to 25,000 Iraqi troops. But the Americans have cautioned the offensive could be de- layed. Iranian military advis- ers have been helping guide Iraqi forces in their advance on Tikrit Among those direct- ing operations is Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, commander of the power- ful Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force. Frontline im- ages have emerged of the general in recent days, showing him smiling in plainclothes without a bul- letproof vest. The overt Iranian role and the prominence of Shi- ite militias in the campaign have raised fears of possible sectarian cleansing should Tikrit, an overwhelmingly Sunni city, fall to the gov- ernment troops. TWO-FRONT OFFENSIVE Ir aq i fo rc es , mi li ti as s we ep into Islamic State-held Tikrit THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Soldiers fire toward a target in Tikrit, Iraq on Wednesday. Iraqi soldiers and Shiite militiamen entered the Islamic State-held city of Tikrit on Wednesday, authorities said, breaching one of the biggest strongholds of the extremists in a key test for Iraqi forces. MILITANT VIDEO VIA SITE INTELLIGENCE GROUP — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS An Islamic State militant stands behind Palestinian Mohamed Said Ismail Musalam, moments before Musalam is killed by a boy who is also at the scene. By Lori Hinnant and Alon Bernstein The Associated Press PARIS A man and a boy featured in a chilling Is- lamic State propaganda video showing the kill- ing of a Palestinian have been identified as French citizens, and investigators are looking into whether the man is related to an extremist who attacked a Jewish school in southern France in 2012, an official told The Associated Press on Wednesday. Theofficial,whohasclose ties to intelligence services but was not authorized to speak publicly about the inquiry, also said another French fighter whose death was announced this week by Islamic State is a young teenager. The man in the video, released late Tuesday, speaks with a southern French accent and inves- tigators are probing if he could be the step-brother of Mohammed Merah, who killed seven people in at- tacks on a Jewish school and paratroopers in the south of France begin- ning on March 11, 2012 — exactly three years ago. In photos from Merah's funeral after his death in a shootout with police, the step-brother is identified as Sabri Essid, whose father was married to Merah's mother. Essid strongly re- sembles the man in the Is- lamic State video, notably in the shape of the eyes. In the video, the man praises attacks on Jews "in your own stronghold in France" as he and the boy stand behind the man about to be killed. Since the 2012 killings in Toulouse, Jews have been targeted by French extremists twice. Four died in a kosher super- market during three days of terror in the Paris area this year that left 20 people dead, including the three gunmen, and a French ex- fighter for Islamic State is also charged in a deadly attack on a Jewish mu- seum in Brussels. But the boy seen in the video Tuesday, who ap- pears to be a young ado- lescent, and the death an- nounced earlier this week of the French teen ap- peared to mark a new em- phasis on foreign children. "Here are the young li- ons of the caliphate," the man says in the video. Soon afterward, the child is shown shooting the man in the head. White House spokesman Josh Earnest called the kill- ing an "abhorrent and un- justifiable action," adding that the compelling of a child to kill further dem- onstrated the Islamic State group's"disregardforallhu- man decency." Yet he noted the video comes amid signs of dissent within IS ranks and reports of IS fighters being executed while trying to flee and defect, suggest- ing the group was flailing under increased pressure. "That is an indication that we're continuing to apply pressure to ISIL in a way that is actually suc- ceeding in degrading their ability to wreak havoc in that part of the world," Earnest said, using an- other acronym for the mil- itant group. The father of the Pales- tinian killed said that his son was no Israeli spy but was tricked into joining the militants and then re- gretted his decision. Said Musalam said IS lured his 19-year-old son Mohamed with promises of women, money and cars. France identifies ma n, b oy i n ki ll in g PROPAGANDA By Deb Riechmann The Associated Press WASHINGTON Iran is play- ing a helpful role against Islamic State militants in Iraq now, but once the ex- tremists are vanquished, Tehran-backed militias could undermine efforts to unify the country, the top U.S. military officer said Wednesday. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey told lawmakers that any move to counter IS is a 'positive thing." But he said there are worries about whether those Shi- ite militias will later turn against Sunni or Kurdish Iraqis and hamper efforts to bridge ethnic and po- litical divisions that have made peace elusive in Iraq. "We are all concerned about what happens af- ter the drums stop beating and ISIL is defeated, and whether the government of Iraq will remain on a path to provide an inclusive govern- ment for all of the various groups within it," Dempsey said, using an acronym for the militant group. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said of- ficials are watching to see whether the militias, after recapturing lost ground, "engage in acts of retribu- tion and ethnic cleansing." At this point, "there no in- dication that that is a wide- spread event." Dempsey joined Secretary of State John Kerry and De- fense Secretary Ash Carter in testifying for more than three hours at a Senate For- eign Relations Committee hearing called to examine President Barack Obama's proposal for new war pow- ers to fight IS, which holds about one-third of Iraq and neighboring Syria. The committee chairman, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., la- mented that Obama's pro- posal does not give the U.S. military clear authority to defend moderate forces training for the Syrian fight from the bombing risk by troops loyal to Syrian Pres- ident Bashar Assad. JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN Dempsey: US worries about Iran-backed militias By Angela Charlton The Associated Press PARIS About 15 gunmen ambushed two vans carry- ing jewels worth millions on a French highway in the dead of night, ejecting their drivers and speeding off into the Burgundy coun- tryside, police said. It was the latest of several big jew- elry heists in France. Unusually this time, the attackers chose a mov- ing target instead of one of France's many high-end jewelry boutiques. To pull it off, experts said, the gang must have been tightly or- ganized and well-informed, possibly thanks to an inside source with knowledge of the vans' movements. The assailants and the jewels remained missing Wednesday evening, even after gendarmes and other authorities spent hours combing the forests and towns southeast of Paris around the scene of the overnight attack. The vans were slowing downtoapproachatollbooth on the A6 highway connect- ingParisandLyonwhenfour cars apparently surrounded them and forced them to stop, a security official said. No one was injured, and the drivers of the two vans were left at the scene unharmed, a police official said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity be- cause they were not autho- rized to be publicly named. The perpetrators then es- caped in four cars and the two vans, which police later found burned and aban- doned about 50 kilometers (30 miles) away, the police official said. Forensic in- vestigators in white suits examined the area around the charred vans Wednes- day amid vineyards in the town of Quenne. It's unclear where the at- tackers were heading. Af- ter hours of searches failed to locate them, authorities concentrated on their in- vestigation into the attack, which was handed to the French police agency over- seeing organized crime. No suspects have been named. Alain Bauer, a professor of criminology, said Wednes- day's heist did not appear to fit the pattern of attacks by the Pink Panthers gang of jewel thieves because they "don't usually attack trucks." That network has been cred- ited with a series of thefts that Interpol says have net- ted more than 330 million euros since 1999. France itself sees about five or six jewelry heists a year, Bauer said. "That's actually low, his- torically. Ten or 20 years ago, we had two or three times more," he said. The number has dimin- ished because French au- thorities have dismantled several jewelry theft net- works. Today, Bauer said, most of the teams staging heists in France are coming from the Balkans or else- where in eastern Europe. In November, two gun- men robbed a Cartier jew- elry boutique in a tony, tourist-filled Paris neigh- borhood. Police chased them across the Seine River and they took a hostage be- fore surrendering. 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