TIKRIT, Iraq—Abdel Mowgood Hassan climbs over toppled bricks and a torn-away front door to enter his uncle’s house in Tikrit, the first of his relatives to make a cautious return home since Islamic State extremists were driven out.
“It’s safe,” Hassan calmly says. “I checked for booby traps.”
He is one in a trickle of civilians to return to Saddam Hussein’s hometown in recent days after Iraqi forces and allied militias captured the city in April from ISIS, known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But while police now patrol the streets, its Sunni civilians are worried about the future, apprehensive about the Shiite militias that liberated Tikrit and fearful the ISIS could come back.
