U.S. sees opportunity in Iran's pullback in Iraq

WASHINGTON -- The United States persuaded Iraq to sideline Iranian-backed Shiite militias as a condition to American airstrikes in the strategic city of Tikrit, a senior U.S. general said Thursday. The move limits Iran's influence, at least temporarily, and could re-invigorate a ground offensive U.S. officials said had stalled under Iranian leadership.

Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of U.S. Central Command, told a Senate hearing he had insisted Iranian-backed militias pull back before the U.S. began flying intelligence-gathering flights over the weekend and dropping bombs Wednesday in support of a reconfigured Iraqi force of soldiers and federal police.

Spokesmen for several Shiite militias fired back, saying they chose to withdraw from the battle for Tikrit in protest of the United States entering the fray. Either way, the conditions set for U.S. airstrikes were an important turn of events, given U.S. concerns Iran's role in Tikrit had unsettled its anti-Islamic State group coalition of Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, which see Iran as an adversary and worry about the spread of Iran's Shiite influence.

Tikrit is a predominantly Sunni city and the hometown of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.