AFP, Tikrit :
An air strike on the insurgent-controlled Iraqi city of Tikrit killed at least seven people on Sunday, as the authorities seek to stem a swift Sunni militant offensive.
The air strike, reported by state television and witnesses, comes after a lightning advance earlier this month in which insurgents including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant jihadist group overran a swathe of territory, including Tikrit.
The television said the strike targeted a group of militants and killed 40 of them, while witnesses told AFP the attack hit a petrol station in the centre of the city, which is the capital of Salaheddin province north of Baghdad.
The witnesses said seven people were killed, but did not know whether the casualties were fighters.
Beginning late on June 9, militants led by ISIL but also including a number of other groups such as loyalists of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, overran most of one province and parts of three others north of Baghdad.
