The crisis in Iraq escalated rapidly on Thursday as Iraqi Kurdish forces said they had taken control of key military installations in the major oil city of Kirkuk and the Sunni jihadi group Isis revealed its intention to move on Baghdad and cities in the southern Shia heartland.
Kurdish peshmerga fighters said they had entered Kirkuk after the central government's army abandoned its posts in a rapid collapse during which it lost control of much of the country's north.
Iraq has been fragile since the 2003 US-led invasion and the latest developments have raised fears that it in danger of splintering along ethnic and sectarian lines.
Iraq has a Shia majority, with a substantial Sunni minority concentrated in Baghdad and the provinces north and west, who have long complained of being disenfranchised. Iraqi Kurds enjoy a large degree of autonomy and self-government in the north-east but have long coveted Kirkuk, a city with huge oil reserves which they regard as their historical capital.
Since Tuesday, black-clad Isis fighters have seized Iraq's second biggest city, Mosul, and Tikrit, hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein, as well as other towns and cities north of Baghdad. They continued their lightning advance on Thursday, moving into towns just an hour's drive from the capital.
About 500,000 people have fled Mosul, home to two million, and the surrounding province, many seeking safety in autonomous Kurdistan.
Isis's spokesman, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, threatened on Thursday that the group's fighters intended to the southern cities of Karbala and Najaf, which hold two of the holiest shrines for Shia Muslims.
US officials have said they were considering ways to help the Iraqi government even as it emerged that the Obama administration rebuffed a secret request from the Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, to bomb Isis positions.
Reports from Iraq have painted a confused picture of a rapidly developing situation with fighting reported in a number of key locations on Wednesday night and on Thursday, including on the outskirts of the city of Samarra, where government officials said Isis fighters had been driven back.
According to Army Staff Lieutenant General Sabah al-Fatlawi, quoted by Agence France-Presse, "elite forces" backed by air strikes pushed back a "fierce attack by Isis fighters who then by-passed the city heading towards Baghdad".
Complicating the picture of the past few days were emerging suggestions that other Sunni insurgent groups, including Ba'ath nationalists, supporters of the executed Saddam, had played a role in the series of stunning setbacks for the Iraqi military.
The collapse of the Iraqi army has raised international concerns about a rapidly widening regional crisis that has implications for Iraq's powerful neighbours, Iran and Turkey.
Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, warned in a televised address on Thursday that Iran would combat the "violence and terrorism" of Sunni extremists in Iraq. The foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, offered Iran's support for Iraq's "fight against terrorism" during a phone call with his Iraqi counterpart, Iranian state TV reported.
The collapse of the Iraqi army has raised international concerns about a rapidly widening regional crisis that has implications for Iraq's powerful neighbours, Iran and Turkey.
Iran's president, Hassan Rouhani, warned in a televised address on Thursday that Iran would combat the "violence and terrorism" of Sunni extremists in Iraq. The foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, offered Iran's support for Iraq's "fight against terrorism" during a phone call with his Iraqi counterpart, Iranian state TV reported.
Source: TheGuardian
