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Iraqi troops and Shiite militias battled ISIS Tuesday on the outskirts of militant-held Tikrit, unable to advance further on Saddam Hussein’s hometown as roadside mines and suicide attacks slowed their progress, The Daily Star reported citing news agencies. 

Soldiers found some 100 mines and bombs scattered along an 8-kilometer stretch of road on the way to this strategic city on the Tigris River, Salahuddin Deputy Governor Ammar Hikmat said.

The discovery underlined how the battle likely will pivot on allied Iraqi forces’ ability to counter such weapons, a mainstay of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, ISIS’ predecessor, as it fought American forces following their 2003 invasion of the country.

The bombs are “the main obstacle in the way of the attacking forces, which have to wait for bomb experts or to go around the area,” Hikmat told the Associated Press. “And this costs time.”

Extremists from ISIS have littered major roadways and routes with mines. Such mines allow them to slow any ground advance and require painstaking clearing operations before troops can proceed safely.