RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Let's turn now to something else on voters' minds - the fight against terrorism. In Iraq, the war against ISIS appears to be gaining momentum. Pro-government forces supported by U.S. airstrikes have taken back several cities. Most of those places are ruined and deserted, but Tikrit is different. The residents have returned to this strategically important city just 80 miles north of Baghdad. NPR's Alice Fordham found life slowly coming back there, but with some tensions between the people and their liberators.
ALICE FORDHAM, BYLINE: Nine months ago, Tikrit was full of fighters celebrating kicking ISIS out. There wasn't a civilian in sight, but now the main market is bustling with shoppers. A pharmacist, Masoud al Hamoud, tells me he came back right after ISIS were gone and started fixing up his shop.
MASOUD AL HAMOUD: (Foreign language spoken).
FORDHAM: "When the security forces are around, I don't feel afraid," he says. Around Tikrit, there's plenty of signs people are settling back in. We drive past construction workers starting new buildings among the houses destroyed by fighting. Electricity and water are back on most of the time. On the surface, things are moving forward. But there's something not quite right. Although most everyone in Tikrit is Sunni Muslim, there's flags everywhere with Shiite slogans and symbols on them. When Iraq security forces pushed ISIS out of Tikrit, they got a lot of help from informal Shiite armed groups. Plenty of Sunnis say they needed that help. At a house with fountains plashing outside, I meet a Sunni leader, sheikh Jassim Jubarah, who's also the head of the local security committee.
JASSIM JUBARAH: (Foreign language spoken).
FORDHAM: His other houses were blown up by ISIS. Now, ISIS is Sunni, but lots of Sunnis in Iraq like Jubarah fight against them, and he says he was happy to have help from the Shiite forces.
JUBARAH: (Foreign language spoken).
FORDHAM: In fact, the Shiites helped organize Sunni tribal volunteers to hold the city. But some of these Shiite groups are accused of abuses against Sunnis, and many Sunnis fear them. When my recorder switched off, some tell me the Shiite forces are definitely in charge here. And sometimes they steal cars or kidnap people for ransom. The longer they stay, the more resentment among Sunnis could build, the kind of resentment that can make ISIS seem like an appealing option.
JUBARAH: (Foreign language spoken).
FORDHAM: The Sunni Sheikh Jubarah acknowledges the tension, but says the Shiite forces won't be here forever. But they are going to be around for a while. I meet Moin Kadhimi, a leader of one of the biggest Shiite paramilitary forces. He says that as long as the Iraqi army is weak, his men will be needed against ISIS, or Daesh as it is in Arabic.
MOIN KADHIMI: (Through interpreter) Iraqi army cannot hold the ground and we are afraid maybe if we going to leave the army maybe they will retreat back as happened before and Daesh will come back.
FORDHAM: The U.S. has condemned several of the Shiite groups. Some are even classified as terrorists, and they're backed by Iran. The head of the provincial council for Tikrit, Ahmed al Kareem, tells me, well, if the U.S. had done more to fight ISIS, the Shiite fighters wouldn't have played such a big role.
AHMED AL KAREEM: (Foreign language spoken).
FORDHAM: For now, when he sees the fighters and even their Iranian advisers, he shakes their hands because they're helping keep ISIS out of his city. And that makes it possible for his people to come home. Alice Fordham, NPR News, Tikrit.