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Iraqi security forces and militia fighters captured part of Tikrit's northern Qadisiya district Wednesday in their first advance into the city seized nine months ago by ISIS militants, security officials and the provincial governor said, AFP reported.

The home city of executed former president Saddam Hussein, Tikrit is the focus of Baghdad's biggest counter-offensive to push back last year's ISIS sweep through much of northern and central Iraq.

More than 20,000 troops and Iranian-backed Shiite Muslim militias known as Hashid Shaabi, supported by local Sunni Muslim tribes, launched the offensive 10 days ago, seizing territory to the east and along the Tigris river to the north and south.

On Tuesday they took the town of Al-Alam on the northern edge of Tikrit, paving the way for an attack on the city itself.

"The governor of Salahuddin announces the purging of half of Qadisiya district, the largest of Tikrit's neighborhoods," a statement from governor Raed al-Jubouri's office said.

The army and militia fighters raised the national flag above a military hospital in the section of Qadisiya they had retaken from the militants, security officials said.