Militants push into Sunni heartland

Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group took control of much of Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, sending an estimated half a million people fleeing from their homes.

As in Tikrit, the Sunni militants were able to move in after police and military forces abandoned their posts after relatively brief clashes.

The group, which has seized wide swathes of territory, aims to create an Islamic emirate spanning both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.

The capture of Mosul – along with the fall of Tikrit and the militants’ earlier seizure of the western city of Fallujah – have undone hard-fought gains against insurgents in the years following the 2003 invasion by US-led forces.

The White House said the security situation has deteriorated over the past 24 hours and that the United States was “deeply concerned” about ISIL’s continued aggression.

There were no reliable estimates of casualties or the number of insurgents involved, though several hundred gunmen were in Tikrit and more were fighting on the outskirts, according to Mizhar Fleih, the deputy head of the municipal council of nearby Samarra. An even larger number of militants would have been needed to secure Mosul, a much bigger city.

The militants gained entry to the Turkish consulate in Mosul and held captive 48 people, including diplomats, police, consulate employees and three children, according to an official in the office of Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkish officials believe the hostages are safe for now.

The White House said in a statement that Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Mr Erdogan and called for the safe and immediate return of the Turkish personnel and family members.

“The Vice President told Prime Minister Erdogan that the United States is prepared to support Turkey’s efforts to bring about the safe return of its citizens,” the statement said.

Turkish officials did not make any public comment on the seizure, but the state-run Anadolu Agency reported that Mr Erdogan convened an emergency Cabinet meeting.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the abductions and the seizure of Iraqi territory by the militants, urging “the international community to unite in showing solidarity with Iraq as it confronts this serious security challenge”.

“Terrorism must not be allowed to succeed in undoing the path towards democracy in Iraq,” Mr Ban said.

While the insurgents have advanced southward, Baghdad does not appear to be in imminent danger from a similar assault, although Sunni insurgents have stepped up car bombings and suicide attacks in the capital in recent months.

So far, ISIL fighters have stuck to the Sunni heartland and former Sunni insurgent strongholds where people are already alienated by the Shia-led government over allegations of discrimination and mistreatment. The militants also would likely meet far stronger resistance, not only from government forces but by Shia militias if they tried to advance on the capital.

Mosul, the capital of Ninevah province, and the neighbouring Sunni-dominated province of Anbar share a long and porous border with Syria, where the Islamic State is also active.

Mosul’s fall was a heavy defeat for Mr al-Maliki. His Shia-dominated political bloc came first in April 30 parliamentary elections – the first since the US military withdrawal in 2011 – but failed to gain a majority, forcing him to try to build a governing coalition.

Mr al-Maliki said a “conspiracy” led to the massive security failure that allowed militants to capture Mosul, and warned that members of the security forces who fled rather than opposing the militants should be punished.

He stopped short of assigning direct blame, however, choosing to focus instead on plans to fight back – without giving specifics.

“We are working to solve the situation,” Mr al-Maliki said. “We are regrouping the armed forces that are in charge of clearing Ninevah from those terrorists.”

Mr al-Maliki has pressed parliament to declare a state of emergency over the Mosul attack – a decision expected later this week.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest warned that the instability was rapidly becoming a humanitarian issue requiring a coordinated response by Iraq’s leaders to halt ISIL’s advance and wrest territory away from insurgents.

Tikrit residents said the militant group overran several police stations in the Sunni-dominated city.

Two Iraqi security officials confirmed that the city, 80 miles north of Baghdad and the capital of Salahuddin province, was under ISIL’s control and that the provincial governor was missing.

The major oil refinery in Beiji, located between Mosul and Tikrit, remained in government control, the officials said. There were clashes and gunmen tried to take the town but were repelled in a rare success for Iraqi government forces protecting an important facility.

In addition to being Saddam’s hometown, Tikrit was a power base of his once-powerful Baath Party.

The former dictator was captured by US forces while hiding in a hole in the area and he is buried south of town in a tomb draped with the Saddam-era Iraqi flag.

The International Organisation for Migration estimated 500,000 people fled the Mosul area, with some seeking safety in the Ninevah countryside or the nearby semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Getting into the latter has grown trickier, however, with migrants without family members already in the enclave needing to secure permission from Kurdish authorities, according to the IOM.

Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said Mosul’s fall must bring the country’s leaders together to deal with the “serious, mortal threat” facing Iraq.