US sources: Tikrit fighting force is two-third Iranian Shiite

Although the Baghdad government is making much ado about a victory in Tikrit, Western military sources revealed Saturday that the force which has captured parts of the Sunni town from ISIS is made up of 20,000 Shiite Afghan and Pakistani militiamen imported from Iran and only10,000 Iraqi troops. The Islamist state still controls the Saddam Hussein palace complex,one of the most heavily-fortified sites in the Middle East. DEBKAfile adds: Tehran replicates this set-up in southern Syria, where the “Syrian army” is made up of some 2,000 Afghan and Pakistani fighters and a similar number of Hizballah terrorists under Iranian command. They are fighting to capture Quneitra from Syrian rebels and confront the IDF on the Golan.