[caption id="attachment_153789" align="alignright" width="201"] Members of the Iraqi security forces are heading from Samarra city to Tikrit to launch an assault against the ISIL militants on February 28, 2015. ©AFP[/caption]

Iraq's army, backed by volunteer forces,? has recaptured two areas from the ISIL Takfiri militants in the western and northern parts of the Iraqi city of Tikrit.

According to reports on Monday, the Iraqi army along with Shia forces flushed out the Takfiri militants from al-Teen in the northern part and albu Abid in the western part of the Iraqi city Sunday night.

They used heavy artillery, mortars, tanks and short-range missiles during intensified clashes over the town of Dour which is still under the control of the ISIL terrorists.

The joint forces are reportedly tightening the noose around the Takfiri militants.

Over 27,000 Iraqi soldiers and Shia volunteers launched a massive operation from three directions on Sunday to liberate Tikrit, the hometown of Iraq’s executed dictator Saddam Hussein, from ISIL Takfiri terrorists.

"I call upon those who have been misled or committed a mistake to lay down arms and join their people and security forces in order to liberate their cities,'' Iraqi Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief Haider al-Abadi said during a news conference in Samarra, another key city in Salahuddin which is located 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad.

Abadi traveled to Samarra to "supervise the operation to liberate Tikrit from the terrorist gangs,” the premier’s office said in a statement.

The Iraqi military backed by volunteer forces has been fighting against the ISIL terrorists in Salahuddin since mid-2014.

By Press TV