Saddam's home village retaken

5 July Sky News

The Iraqi army has recaptured Saddam Hussein's home village in its push against Sunni insurgents who have seized large parts of the country.

Backed by helicopter gunships and helped by Shia Muslim volunteers, they retook the village of Awja in an hour-long battle on Thursday night, reports said.The military spokesman of Shia Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki said Awja had been "totally cleansed" and 30 militants killed, according to state television.

Awja lies 8km (5m) south of Tikrit, which has been in rebel hands since the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), launched a sudden offensive across northern Iraq last month.

The assault also saw the militants capture the city of Mosul and other major Sunni areas, and go on to declare a medieval-style Islamic caliphate erasing the borders of Iraq and Syria.

They have also threatened to march on Baghdad, although officials in the US, which has sent military advisers to Iraq, believe the army will be able to defend the capital.Iraq's most senior Shia cleric has described Parliament's failure to pick a new government to unite the ethnically-divided country as "regrettable".

In a sermon delivered on Friday by his aide, Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani called on politicians to avoid "mistakes of the past that have grave consequences for the future of the Iraqis".Mr Sistani again urged the government to have "broad national acceptance", which many interpret as a call for Mr Maliki - blamed by Sunnis for increasing ethnic tensions - to go.

In another development, a group of 46 Indian nurses abducted by jihadists in Iraq last month were on their way back home on Friday after being freed from Mosul.Ultimately it is hope that has triumphed," Syed Akbaruddin, a spokesman for the Indian foreign ministry, told reporters.

I can confirm to you that those Indian nurses who were yesterday moved against their will are now free.

The nurses, who were working in a state-run hospital in Tikrit, found themselves stranded when the jihadists embarked on their June offensive.They were moved to Mosul on Thursday and are now heading for the city of Arbil, the Kurdish regional capital, where they are due to board a specially-chartered plane for India.