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They
won't have such an easy time in Baghad. The Shi'ites will fight back
Militants
advancing towards Baghdad
Militants
linked to al-Qaeda are pushing towards Baghdad after after capturing
a town only 90km to its north, in a lightning three-day offensive the
Iraqi government has failed to stop.
12
June, 2014
The
jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) have
control of several cities in the province of Nineveh including
Monday's spectacular assault on Mosul, a city of two million, where
as many as 500,000 have fled their homes.
They also captured the
Turkish consulate in the city, taking dozens of diplomats hostage.
image released by the militants showing fighters in Nineveh
province.
Photo: AFP / ISIL
Spokesperson Abu Mohammed
al-Adnani promised that the battle would "rage" on Baghdad
and Karbala - a city south-west of the capital considered one of the
holiest sites for Shi'ite Muslims, AFP reports.
In an audio released by
the Site Intelligence Group, a spokesperson for ISIS calls on his men
to keep fighting, saying they have a score to settle and must march
on to Baghad.
The militants were
repulsed in heavy fighting when they tried to enter Samarra, to the
north, bypassing it and heading to Dhuluiyah. State television said
security forces responded with air strikes, and residents said the
fighting subsided without the militants entering Samarra.
Tikrit - the hometown of
executed dictator Saddam Hussein - was the second provincial capital
to fall on Wednesday as the jihadists and their allies captured a
string of mainly Sunni Arab towns where resentment against the
Shi'ite-led government runs deep.
ISIS, which is also known
as ISIL, also controls a large swathe of territory in eastern Syria
in a campaign to set up a Sunni militant enclave straddling the
border.
Abu Mohammed
al-Adnani dismissed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as woefully
incompetent, calling him an "underwear salesman".
But Mr Maliki warned that
the government would fight back against the jihadists and punish
those in the security forces who fled, offering little or no
resistance.
"We are dealing with
the situation. We are not going to allow this to carry on -
regardless of the price. We are getting ready, we are are
organising."
He urged people in the
region not to give up hope. "I would like to tell the people of
Nineveh not to give in to the will of these people. We are with you,
the State is with you, the army is with you - everyone in Iraq is
with you. Even if the battle is a long one, we will not let you down
because Iraq is facing a ferocious terrorist campaign."
Iraq's parliament is due
to meet under urgency on Thursday to consider a request from the
Prime Minister and the president's office to declare a state of
emergency.
Meanwhile, Kurdish forces
are in full control of Iraq's oil-rich city of Kirkuk after the
federal army abandoned its bases there, according to a Kurdish
military spokesman.
Kirkuk lies at the heart
of a long-running dispute between the federal government in Baghdad
and the Kurds, who run their own autonomous region in the north of
the country and have an armed force called the peshmerga.
The United States is
considering what support it can give, while the United Nations
Security Council has condemned the attacks and will hold urgent talks
on Thursday. It said the humanitarian situation around Mosul is "dire
and is worsening by the moment".
Turkey's foreign minister
warned there would be "harsh retaliation" if any of its
citizens were harmed.
An
image from a propaganda video claims to show militant fighters near
Tikrit.
Photo: AFP / ISIL
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