tikrit. we re joined from aman jordan, with more on the battle against isis. with some of the successes aside, the sectarian at play with shia forces coming into a sunni citi, this is is serious stuff. reporter: very sensitive. a lot of concern about that. these are primarily, as ben mentioned, the force that is going into tikrit that is close to the city. these are primarily made up of shia militias. concern about what happens next. we have heard from rights groups and wash dog groups like human rights watchdog groups like human rights that sunni villages obviously on a smaller scale in different provinces, they say there were atrocities committed by militias like these. there s a lot of concerns about reprisal attacks and what happens next. we ve also heard from the top shia leadership in the country,
the religious authority there. the ayatollah calling for restraint to these forces and also there is concern about the element of revenge in this battle. as you recall last year one of the worst attacks, atrocities that was committed by isis took place in tikrit. up to 1,700 shia recruits were taken, captured by isis from the camp in tikrit. the fate of all of them is really unknown. the iraqi government has not been able to answer the fate of these recruits. we ve heard isis claiming they killed all 1,700. we ve heard human rights watch saying they documented through satellite imagery what they believe to be mass graves of these shia recruits up to 770 of them. they said in the presidential complex, they are in tikrit. that incident we saw over the past year increased sectarian tensions in the country.
fighting terrorism. some of those advisers were here speaking broken arabic. they told me they were volunteers. whoever is helping, iraqi forces are making good progress despite isis lighting oil fires in an attempt to obscure the view of iraqi aircraft. in three days iraqi forces advanced 80 kilometers or 50 miles, but it hasn t been easy going. these are the remains of an isis truck bomb, and the closer they get to tikrit they can expect more of the same. officers here say they expect to take tikrit within days. car bombs, suicide bomber booby traps, we ll deal with them says the federal police commander. as they did with this isis truck hit by an air strike charred bodies strewn around it. deal with them, they did. ben wedeman, cnn, outside
i m george howell. the headlines this hour actor harrison ford is in stable condition after a small plane he was piloting crashed near los angeles. the single engine plane was attempting an emergency landing, but ended up hitting a golf course instead of a densely populated area nearby. new video shows iraqi forces fighting to retake the city of tikrit from isis. show shia and sunni militias are fighting alongside government troops. tikrit has been under isis control since june. in the u.s. state of kentucky heavy snow is causing a string of accidents and brought traffic to a stand still. look at that. left hundreds of motorists stranded for hours. the national guard was sent in to help with rescue efforts. we understand that no deaths or injuries were reported. an attorney for the family of michael brown, the teenager
a source says as many as 13 of the group s leaders were killed in that attack. this is al qaeda s largest affiliate inside syria. isis militants have destroyed more ancient ruins in northern iraq. the country s ministry of antiques says the terror group has bulldozed the site of the ancient assyrian city of nimrud. this shows excavations of the ruins in 2001. just last week isis released videos of militants destroying artifacts in a mosul museum. the city dates back as far as 1300 b.c. iraqi forces are in the fifth tay of their push to recapture tikrit. a cnn team was able to get close to the front lines. ben wedeman has this story. [ gunfire ] reporter: tikrit is the target. heavy rounds fired into a city