Iraqi city of Mosul falls to An al-Qaeda splinter group



 Written : Mohamed Abdel fattah

 Jun 10, 2014

 An al-Qaeda splinter group in Iraq seized control of the big northern city of Mosul on Tuesday.

Islamic militants overran much of Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul on Tuesday, seizing the governor's headquarters and rampaging through police stations, military bases and the airport

The Iraqi prime minister,Nouri al-Maliki said that he would ask parliament to declare the emergency ,"We will not allow Mosul to be under the banner of terrorism, We call on all international organisations to support Iraq and its stance in fighting terrorism. The entire world will suffer if terrorism spreads."al-Maliki said

The United States, which pulled out its troops two and a half years ago, pledged to help Iraq leaders "push back against this aggression". The militants taking control of security checkpoints, military bases and a prison, where they freed up to 1,000 prisoners, authorities said.

The speaker of Iraq's parliament said that a "foreign invasion" of the country was under way by "terrorist groups" and that the northern province of Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, was under "total occupation."

Speaking at a news conference in Baghdad, Osama al-Nujaifi appeared to point the finger at the central government, accusing security forces of abandoning Mosul when the fighting began.

Two army officers said security forces had received orders to quit Mosul after militants captured the Ghizlani army bas

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The group has been advancing in both Iraq and neighboring Syria, capturing territory in what appears to be a campaign to set up a militant enclave straddling the border.

Earlier this year, Islamic State took control another Iraqi city, Fallujah, in the west of the country, and government forces have been unable to take it back. The far larger Mosul is an even more strategic prize. The city and surrounding Ninevah province are a major export route for Iraqi oil and a gateway to Syria

Online footage taken from a car driving through the streets of Mosul showed burning vehicles in the streets, black-masked gunmen in pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns, and residents walking with suitcases, thousands of families were fleeing north from Mosul,a largely Sunni Arab city, towards the nearby Kurdistan region, where Iraq's ethnic Kurds enjoy autonomy.

Sources

CNN

washingtonpost

Reuters

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