Iraq crisis: Capture of Mosul ushers in the birth of a Sunni caliphate
The balance of power between Iraq’s Sunni, Kurdish and Shia communities has now changed
The capture of Mosul by Isis means a radical change in the political geography of Iraq and Syria. Moreover, the impact of this event will soon be felt across the Middle East as governments take on board the fact that a Sunni proto-caliphate is spreading across northern Iraq and Syria.
The next few weeks will be crucial in determining the outcome of Isis’s startling success in taking over a city of 1.4 million people, garrisoned by a large Iraqi security force, with as few as 1,300 fighters. Will victory in Mosul be followed by success in other provinces where there is a heavy concentration of Sunni, such as Salahuddin, Anbar and Diyala? Already, the insurgents have captured the important oil refinery town of Baiji with scarcely a shot fired by simply calling ahead by phone to tell the police and army to lay down their weapons and withdraw.
These spectacular advances by Isis would not be happening unless there was tacit support and no armed resistance from the Sunni Arab community in northern and central Iraq. Many people rightly suspect and fear Isis’s bloodthirsty and sectarian fanaticism, but for the moment these suspicions and fears have been pushed to one side by even greater hatred of Iraq’s Shia-dominated government.
This may not last: Iraqi government officials speak of a counterattack led by special “anti-terrorist” forces that are better trained, motivated and armed than the bulk of the Iraqi army. It may be that the Kurds will use their peshmerga troops in Nineveh and Kirkuk provinces to drive back Isis and create facts on the ground in areas often rich in oil, in Kirkuk and Nineveh provinces. A successful counter-offensive could happen but the failure of the Iraqi army to retake Fallujah, a much smaller city than Mosul, in the six months since it fell in January does not bode well for the government. If the Isis advance takes more towns and villages, then the territory lost to the government may become too large to reconquer.
But Isis too has its weaknesses: in the past it has isolated itself by its fierce determination to monopolise power, impose fundamentalist Islamic norms and persecute or kill all who differ from it. This enabled the Americans to turn many Sunni against it in 2006 and 2007. So far reports from Mosul suggest it is being much more circumspect, telling government employees to turn up for work and not harassing the population, though this may not last. People in Mosul are wondering who they fear most: Isis or the government. Anger against the latter will grow if it resorts to indiscriminate bombing and shelling of Mosul as it has done in Fallujah.
In pictures: Iraq crisis
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In pictures: Iraq crisis
1/98 Iraq
Mourners burying 15 bodies in the village of Taza Khormato, near the northern city of Kirkuk
AP
2/98 Iraq
A Shiite Turkman fighter from the so-called Sahwa or "Awakening" force, manning a position on the front line with insurgents led by the Isis group which has overran swathes of five provinces north and west of Baghdad
3/98 Iraq
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters on their military vehicles drive towards the front lines of Mosul villages where they fight against Isis, in the Khazer area between the Iraqi city of Mosul and the Kurdish city of Irbil
4/98 Iraq
Fighters of the Isis group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul
5/98 Iraq
Shi'ite volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the Isis, take part in a military-style training in Basra, southeast of Baghdad
6/98 Iraq
A Kurdish peshmerga fighter takes his position behind a wall on the front line with militants from the Isis group, in Tuz Khormato, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the oil rich province of Kirkuk
7/98 Iraq
Iraqis who fled with families the violence in their home towns walk at a refugee camp near the city of Mosul
8/98 Iraq
A member of the Jordanian Bedouin forces stands guard in front of the Jordanian Karameh border crossing at the Jordanian-Iraqi border, near Ruweished city
9/98 Iraq
Iraqis gather at the site of a car bomb explosion in a Kurdish-majority neighbourhood of the ethnically mixed northern city of Kirkuk. The blast killed at least three people and also wounded 15 others in the northern part of the tinderbox oil hub, which lies at the centre of territory Iraq's Kurds want to incorporate into their autonomous region over the objections of Baghdad
10/98 Iraq
Iraqi Kurdish forces take position near Taza Khormato
AFP/Getty Images
11/98 Iraq
Kurdistan regional government president Massud Barzani greets US Secretary of State John Kerry at the presidential palace in Arbil
Getty Images
12/98 Iraq
Iraqi men queue to for a medical check up as they volunteer to join the security forces at a recruitment centre in Baghdad
Getty Images
13/98 Iraq
Kurdish fighters believe they are ‘facing a new reality and a new Iraq’
AP
14/98 Iraq
Militants of the Isis group stand next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. For militant groups, the fight over public perception can be even more important than actual combat, turning military losses into propaganda victories and battlefield successes into powerful tools to build support for the cause
15/98 Iraq
A member of the Kurdish security forces takes up position with his weapon while guarding an oil refinery, on the outskirts of Mosul
16/98 Iraq
Iraqi Turkmen stand with their weapons as they ready to fight against militants led by the jihadist, in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk
17/98 Iraq
Volunteers of the newly formed "Peace Brigades" participate in a parade in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, Baghdad. Thousands of Shiite militiamen have paraded in Baghdad and several other cities in southern Iraq with heavy weaponry, signaling their readiness to take on Sunni militants who control a large chunk of the country's north
18/98 Iraq
Iraqi security forces, loyal to Muslim Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr take part in a military parade in the shrine city of Najaf, in central Iraq. International leaders and Iraq's Shiite religious elite have called on the country to unite to face off the insurgent threat, with US Secretary of State John Kerry this weekend heading to the Middle East and Europe in a diplomatic push to bring political stability to the country
19/98 Iraq
Iraqi Shiite mourners carry the coffin of a Shiite militiaman killed in Muqdadiyah during his funeral procession, in the shrine city of Najaf. Militants attacked the town of Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad and a key approach to Diyala provincial capital Baquba, sparking clashes that killed 30 Shiite militiamen
20/98 Iraq
An Islamist fighter, identified as Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain (R), speaks in this still image taken undated video shot at an unknown location and uploaded to a social media website. Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals have called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the new video released by the Isis
21/98 Iraq
Al-Qa’ida inspired militants stand with captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint belonging to Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The fighting at Beiji comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Isis group. While U.S. President Barack Obama has not fully ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes, such action is not imminent in part because intelligence agencies have been unable to identify clear targets on the ground, officials said
22/98 Iraq
Members of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces take their positions during clashes with the Isis group in the city of Ramadi
23/98 Iraq
Members of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces shoot during the clashes with the Isis gruop in the city of Ramadi
24/98 Iraq
A Peshmerga unit is ready and armed on the front lines outside Kirkuk
25/98 Iraq
A U.S. Geological Survey satellite image shows smoke rising from the Baiji refinery near Tikrit
26/98 Iraq
A column of smoke rises from an oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad
27/98 Iraq
Iraqi men line up at the main army recruiting center to volunteer for military service in Baghdad, after authorities urged Iraqis to help battle insurgents
28/98 Iraq
Iraqi Shiite women hold their weapons as they gather to show their willingness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over several northern Iraqi cities in the southern Shiite Muslim shrine city of Najaf
29/98 Iraq
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters stand next to the bed of a comrade wounded in clashes with jihadists in Kirkuk at the emergency ward of a hospital in Arbil
30/98 Iraq
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter wounded in the legs in clashes with Isis in Kirkuk is watched by a family member as he lies on a bed in the emergency ward of a hospital in Arbil
31/98 Iraq
Relatives stand vigil for a Kurdish peshmerga fighter wounded in fighting as he is treated in a hospital in Irbil. Kurdish security and hospital officials said that fighting has been raging since morning between Kurdish fighters known as peshmerga and militants who are trying to take the town of Jalula, in the restive Diyala province some 80 miles (125 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad. Ethnic Kurds now control the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk, moving to fill a vacuum after the flight of Iraqi soldiers. They too are battling the Sunni extremist militants
32/98 Iraq
Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinein Baiji as they pressed an offensive that has seen them capture swathes of territory, a manager and a refinery employee said
33/98 Iraq
Militants from the Isis group parading with their weapons in the northern city of Baiji in the in Salaheddin province
34/98 Iraq
A smoke rises after an attack by Isis militants on the country's largest oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and said they regained partial control of a city near the Syrian border, trying to blunt an offensive by Sunni militants who diplomats fear may have also seized some 100 foreign workers
35/98 Iraq
Major General Jamil al-Shammari (C), police chief of Iraq's Diyala province north of Baghdad, inspects the Mafraq police station which includes a prison where the bodies of 44 prisoners were found. An attack by militants was pushed back by Iraqi security forces in Baquba, Diyala's provincial capital within only 60 kilometres (37 miles) of Baghdad, leaving 44 prisoners dead at the Mafraq police station. Accounts differed as to who was responsible for the prisoner killings, with the security spokesman of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki saying the prisoners were killed by insurgents carrying out the attack, and other officials saying they were killed by security forces as they tried to escape
36/98 Iraq
Iraqi men mourn over the coffin of an Iraqi soldier who was killed in the clashes with militants in northern Iraq, during the funeral procession in Najaf. More than two million Iraqis have volunteered to fight against militants from the Isis group, Iraqi Energy Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said. The government had no capacity to process any more volunteers, he adds. Isis and other Sunni fighters, including groups linked to the former ruling Baath Party, were reported that they now control swathes of northern Iraq after a lightning advance recently
37/98 Iraq
Iraqi displaced people, who have fled violence in Iraq's northern Nineveh province, walk past the wreckage of military vehicles upon their arrival in al-Hamdaniyah, 76 kms west of the Kurdish autonomous region's capital Arbil
38/98 Iraq
Demonstrators chant slogans as they carry al-Qa’ida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. In the week since it captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work
39/98 Iraq
Personnel from the Kurdish security forces detain a man suspected of being a militant belonging to the Isis group, in the outskirts of Kirkuk
40/98 Iraq
Iraqi women walk at the site of a car bomb explosion in the mainly Shiite Sadr City district in Baghdad, which killed at least seven people and wounded 20. The blast came amid a week-long militant offensive in which insurgents have seized vast swathes of territory in northern Iraq
41/98 Iraq
A member of the oil police force stands guard at Zubair oil field in Basra
Reuters
42/98 Iraq
An Iraqi man with a boy inspects the scene of a car bomb attack in Sadr city
EPA
43/98 Iraq
Iraqi Shiite tribesmen parade with their weapons in central Baghdad's Palestine Street as they show their willingness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over several northern Iraqi cities. Faced with a militant offensive sweeping south toward Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the Iraqi government would arm and equip civilians who volunteer to fight, and thousands have signed up
44/98 Iraq
Iraqi men queue at the entrance of a volunteer centre in Karbala city
EPA
45/98 Iraq
Members of the Shiite Muslim Mehdi Army militia, take part in training in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Iraqi Shiite volunteers, who had been fighting in neighbouring Syria, have been heading home to battle an offensive that has brought militants to near Baghdad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
46/98 Iraq
An injured fighter (C) from the Isis group after a battle with Iraqi soldiers at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq
47/98 Iraq
Fighters from the Isis aiming at advancing Iraqi troops at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq
48/98 Iraq
Fighters from the Isis group taking position at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq
49/98 Iraq
Fighters from the Isis group inspecting vehicles of the Iraqi army after they were seized at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq
50/98 Iraq
Iraqi men flash victory signs as they leave the main recruiting center to join the Iraqi army in Baghdad
AP
51/98 Iraq
Refugees queue to register at a temporary camp in northern Iraq
Getty Images
52/98 Iraq
Newly-recruited Iraqi volunteers, wearing police forces uniforms, take part in a briefing at a training centre in Karbala
Getty Images
53/98 Iraq
Kurdish peshmerga forces keep guard around Tal Afar of Mosul
Getty Images
54/98 Iraq
One Iraqi captive, a corporal, is reluctant to say the slogan, and has to be shouted at repeatedly before he obeys
Sky News
55/98 Iraq
Iraqi captives held by the extremists
Sky News
56/98 Iraq
Iraqi captives held by the extremists
Sky News
57/98 Iraq
Shiite tribal fighters raise their weapons and chant slogans against the Isis group in the northwest Baghdad's Shula neighborhood
58/98 Iraq
Tribal fighters carry their weapons as they take part in an intensive security deployment in Dujail, north of Baghdad
59/98 Iraq
Iraqi soldiers watch as armed tribesmen gather to show their willingness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over several northern Iraqi cities in the southern city of Basra
60/98 Iraq
Shiite tribal fighters raise their weapons and chant slogans against the Isis group in the northwest Baghdad's Shula neighborhood
61/98 Iraq
Mehdi Army fighters loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr march during a military-style training in the holy city of Najaf. The United States said it could launch air strikes and act jointly with its arch-enemy Iran to support the Iraqi government, after a rampage by Sunni Islamist insurgents across Iraq that has scrambled alliances in the Middle East
62/98 Iraq
Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi Army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, gather with their weapons during a parade on the streets in Basra, southeast of Baghdad
63/98 Iraq
An Iraqi young boy holds a weapon from the window of a car as people gather to show their readiness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over several northern Iraqi cities in the capital Baghdad
64/98 Iraq
Tribal fighters from Ramadi hold up their weapons as they shout slogans in support of Iraqi security forces in Kerbala
65/98 Iraq
Iraqi security forces fire artillery during clashes with Sunni militant group Isis in Jurf al-Sakhar
66/98 Iraq
Iraqi security forces fire artillery during clashes with Sunni militant group Isis in Jurf al-Sakhar
67/98 Iraq
Ammar al-Hakim, leader of Iraq's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, exercises a shooting drill in the main army recruiting center in Baghdad. Thousands of Shiites from Baghdad and across southern Iraq answered an urgent call to arms, joining security forces to fight the Islamic militants who have captured large swaths of territory north of the capital and now imperil a city with a much-revered religious shrine
68/98 Iraq
An Iraqi security officer stands guard outside the Church of the Virgin Mary in the northern town of Bartala, east of the northern city of Mosul as some Iraqi security stayed in the town to protect the local churches and community
69/98 Iraq
The insurgent offensive that has threatened to dismember Iraq spread to the northwest of the country, when Sunni militants launched a dawn raid on a town close to the Syrian border, clashing with police and government forces
70/98 Iraq
Volunteers walk with their weapons during a parade in the streets in Al-Fdhiliya district, eastern Baghdad
71/98 Iraq
A volunteer, who has joined the Iraqi Army to fight against predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, holds a weapon during a parade in the streets in Al-Fdhiliya district, eastern Baghdad
72/98 Iraq
Militants of the Isis group force captured Iraqi security forces members to the transport
73/98 Iraq
Militants of the Isis group transporting dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them
74/98 Iraq
A major offensive spearheaded by Isis but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein has overrun all of one province and chunks of three others
75/98 Iraq
Militants of the Isis group executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province
76/98 Iraq
A women and a girl wash at a tap at a temporary displacement camp set up next to a Kurdish checkpoint in Kalak. Thousands of people have fled Iraq's second city of Mosul after it was overrun by Isis (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) militants. Many have been temporarily housed at various IDP (internally displaced persons) camps around the region including the area close to Erbil, as they hope to enter the safety of the nearby Kurdish region
77/98 Iraq
Families arrive at a Kurdish checkpoint next to a temporary displacement camp in Kalak
78/98 Iraq
An Iraqi refugee girl from Mosul stands outside her family's tent at Khazir refugee camp outside Irbil, 217 miles (350 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Days after Iraq's second-largest city fell to Isis fighters, some Iraqis are already returning to Mosul, lured back by insurgents offering cheap gas and food, restoring power and water and removing traffic barricades
79/98 Iraq
Civilians escape from Mosul and come to a region that close to Erbil city and are placed to camp by United Nations and Kurd government in Iraq
80/98 Iraq
Young men in Baghdad chant slogans against Isis outside the main army recruiting
centre yesterday, where they are volunteering to fight the extremist group
Karin Kadim/AP
81/98 Iraq
Volunteers who have joined the Iraqi Army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants, who have taken over Mosul and other Northern provinces, board an army truck in Baghdad
82/98 Iraq
Isis militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah
83/98 Iraq
Isis rebels show their flag after seizing an army post
AFP/Getty Images
84/98 Iraq
Isis militants waving an Islamist flag after the seizure of an Iraqi army checkpoint in Salahuddin
Getty Images
85/98 Iraq
A girl, who fled from the violence in Mosul, carries a case of water at a camp on the outskirts of Arbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region
86/98 Iraq
A displaced Iraqi woman washes her family's laundry as the children shower outside their tent at a temporary camp set up to shelter civilians fleeing violence in Iraq's northern Nineveh province in Aski kalak, 40 kms west of the Kurdish autonomous region's capital Arbil
87/98 Iraq
Iraqi refugees from Mosul arrive at Khazir refugee camp outside Irbil, 217 miles (350 kilometers) north of Baghdad
AP
88/98 Iraq
Refugees flee Mosul
AP
89/98 Iraq
Iraqi families fleeing violence in the northern Nineveh province gather at a Kurdish checkpoint in Aski kalak, 40 kms West of Arbil, in the autonomous Kurdistan region
90/98 Iraq
Refugees fleeing from Mosul head to the self-ruled northern Kurdish region in Irbil, Iraq, 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Baghdad
AP
91/98 Iraq
An Iraqi woman carries her property while fleeing from Mosul to Arbil and Duhok due to the clashes between security forces and militants of Isis in Arbil
92/98 Iraq
Iraqi people receive water as they flee from Mosul to Arbil and Duhok
93/98 Iraq
A woman carries a child as families fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Mosul wait at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region. Radical Sunni Muslim insurgents seized control of most of Iraq's second largest city of Mosul, overrunning a military base and freeing hundreds of prisoners in a spectacular strike against the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government
94/98 Iraq
An Iraqi man and his wife flee from Mosul to Arbil and Duhok
95/98 Iraq
The residents gather at a security checkpoint between the provinces of Irbil and Duhok which is controlled by Kurdish Peshmerga troops
96/98 Iraq
Uniforms reportedly belonging to Iraqi security forces scattered on the road
AFP
97/98 Iraq
An armoured vehicle belonging to Iraqi security forces in flames, after hundreds of militants from the Isis group launched a major assault on the security forces in Mosul, some 370 km north from the Iraqi capital Baghdad
98/98 Iraq
Civilian children stand next to a burnt vehicle during clashes between Iraqi security forces and Isis group in the northern Iraq city of Mosul
1/98 Iraq
Mourners burying 15 bodies in the village of Taza Khormato, near the northern city of Kirkuk
AP
2/98 Iraq
A Shiite Turkman fighter from the so-called Sahwa or "Awakening" force, manning a position on the front line with insurgents led by the Isis group which has overran swathes of five provinces north and west of Baghdad
3/98 Iraq
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters on their military vehicles drive towards the front lines of Mosul villages where they fight against Isis, in the Khazer area between the Iraqi city of Mosul and the Kurdish city of Irbil
4/98 Iraq
Fighters of the Isis group parade in a commandeered Iraqi security forces armored vehicle down a main road at the northern city of Mosul
5/98 Iraq
Shi'ite volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the Isis, take part in a military-style training in Basra, southeast of Baghdad
6/98 Iraq
A Kurdish peshmerga fighter takes his position behind a wall on the front line with militants from the Isis group, in Tuz Khormato, 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the oil rich province of Kirkuk
7/98 Iraq
Iraqis who fled with families the violence in their home towns walk at a refugee camp near the city of Mosul
8/98 Iraq
A member of the Jordanian Bedouin forces stands guard in front of the Jordanian Karameh border crossing at the Jordanian-Iraqi border, near Ruweished city
9/98 Iraq
Iraqis gather at the site of a car bomb explosion in a Kurdish-majority neighbourhood of the ethnically mixed northern city of Kirkuk. The blast killed at least three people and also wounded 15 others in the northern part of the tinderbox oil hub, which lies at the centre of territory Iraq's Kurds want to incorporate into their autonomous region over the objections of Baghdad
10/98 Iraq
Iraqi Kurdish forces take position near Taza Khormato
AFP/Getty Images
11/98 Iraq
Kurdistan regional government president Massud Barzani greets US Secretary of State John Kerry at the presidential palace in Arbil
Getty Images
12/98 Iraq
Iraqi men queue to for a medical check up as they volunteer to join the security forces at a recruitment centre in Baghdad
Getty Images
13/98 Iraq
Kurdish fighters believe they are ‘facing a new reality and a new Iraq’
AP
14/98 Iraq
Militants of the Isis group stand next to captured vehicles left behind by Iraqi security forces at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province. For militant groups, the fight over public perception can be even more important than actual combat, turning military losses into propaganda victories and battlefield successes into powerful tools to build support for the cause
15/98 Iraq
A member of the Kurdish security forces takes up position with his weapon while guarding an oil refinery, on the outskirts of Mosul
16/98 Iraq
Iraqi Turkmen stand with their weapons as they ready to fight against militants led by the jihadist, in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk
17/98 Iraq
Volunteers of the newly formed "Peace Brigades" participate in a parade in the Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, Baghdad. Thousands of Shiite militiamen have paraded in Baghdad and several other cities in southern Iraq with heavy weaponry, signaling their readiness to take on Sunni militants who control a large chunk of the country's north
18/98 Iraq
Iraqi security forces, loyal to Muslim Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr take part in a military parade in the shrine city of Najaf, in central Iraq. International leaders and Iraq's Shiite religious elite have called on the country to unite to face off the insurgent threat, with US Secretary of State John Kerry this weekend heading to the Middle East and Europe in a diplomatic push to bring political stability to the country
19/98 Iraq
Iraqi Shiite mourners carry the coffin of a Shiite militiaman killed in Muqdadiyah during his funeral procession, in the shrine city of Najaf. Militants attacked the town of Muqdadiyah, northeast of Baghdad and a key approach to Diyala provincial capital Baquba, sparking clashes that killed 30 Shiite militiamen
20/98 Iraq
An Islamist fighter, identified as Abu Muthanna al-Yemeni from Britain (R), speaks in this still image taken undated video shot at an unknown location and uploaded to a social media website. Five Islamist fighters identified as Australian and British nationals have called on Muslims to join the wars in Syria and Iraq, in the new video released by the Isis
21/98 Iraq
Al-Qa’ida inspired militants stand with captured Iraqi Army Humvee at a checkpoint belonging to Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad. The fighting at Beiji comes as Iraq has asked the U.S. for airstrikes targeting the militants from the Isis group. While U.S. President Barack Obama has not fully ruled out the possibility of launching airstrikes, such action is not imminent in part because intelligence agencies have been unable to identify clear targets on the ground, officials said
22/98 Iraq
Members of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces take their positions during clashes with the Isis group in the city of Ramadi
23/98 Iraq
Members of the Iraqi Special Operations Forces shoot during the clashes with the Isis gruop in the city of Ramadi
24/98 Iraq
A Peshmerga unit is ready and armed on the front lines outside Kirkuk
25/98 Iraq
A U.S. Geological Survey satellite image shows smoke rising from the Baiji refinery near Tikrit
26/98 Iraq
A column of smoke rises from an oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad
27/98 Iraq
Iraqi men line up at the main army recruiting center to volunteer for military service in Baghdad, after authorities urged Iraqis to help battle insurgents
28/98 Iraq
Iraqi Shiite women hold their weapons as they gather to show their willingness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over several northern Iraqi cities in the southern Shiite Muslim shrine city of Najaf
29/98 Iraq
Kurdish Peshmerga fighters stand next to the bed of a comrade wounded in clashes with jihadists in Kirkuk at the emergency ward of a hospital in Arbil
30/98 Iraq
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter wounded in the legs in clashes with Isis in Kirkuk is watched by a family member as he lies on a bed in the emergency ward of a hospital in Arbil
31/98 Iraq
Relatives stand vigil for a Kurdish peshmerga fighter wounded in fighting as he is treated in a hospital in Irbil. Kurdish security and hospital officials said that fighting has been raging since morning between Kurdish fighters known as peshmerga and militants who are trying to take the town of Jalula, in the restive Diyala province some 80 miles (125 kilometers) northeast of Baghdad. Ethnic Kurds now control the northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk, moving to fill a vacuum after the flight of Iraqi soldiers. They too are battling the Sunni extremist militants
32/98 Iraq
Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinein Baiji as they pressed an offensive that has seen them capture swathes of territory, a manager and a refinery employee said
33/98 Iraq
Militants from the Isis group parading with their weapons in the northern city of Baiji in the in Salaheddin province
34/98 Iraq
A smoke rises after an attack by Isis militants on the country's largest oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of the capital, Baghdad. Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and said they regained partial control of a city near the Syrian border, trying to blunt an offensive by Sunni militants who diplomats fear may have also seized some 100 foreign workers
35/98 Iraq
Major General Jamil al-Shammari (C), police chief of Iraq's Diyala province north of Baghdad, inspects the Mafraq police station which includes a prison where the bodies of 44 prisoners were found. An attack by militants was pushed back by Iraqi security forces in Baquba, Diyala's provincial capital within only 60 kilometres (37 miles) of Baghdad, leaving 44 prisoners dead at the Mafraq police station. Accounts differed as to who was responsible for the prisoner killings, with the security spokesman of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki saying the prisoners were killed by insurgents carrying out the attack, and other officials saying they were killed by security forces as they tried to escape
36/98 Iraq
Iraqi men mourn over the coffin of an Iraqi soldier who was killed in the clashes with militants in northern Iraq, during the funeral procession in Najaf. More than two million Iraqis have volunteered to fight against militants from the Isis group, Iraqi Energy Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said. The government had no capacity to process any more volunteers, he adds. Isis and other Sunni fighters, including groups linked to the former ruling Baath Party, were reported that they now control swathes of northern Iraq after a lightning advance recently
37/98 Iraq
Iraqi displaced people, who have fled violence in Iraq's northern Nineveh province, walk past the wreckage of military vehicles upon their arrival in al-Hamdaniyah, 76 kms west of the Kurdish autonomous region's capital Arbil
38/98 Iraq
Demonstrators chant slogans as they carry al-Qa’ida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Baghdad. In the week since it captured Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, a Muslim extremist group has tried to win over residents and has stopped short of widely enforcing its strict brand of Islamic law, residents say. Churches remain unharmed and street cleaners are back at work
39/98 Iraq
Personnel from the Kurdish security forces detain a man suspected of being a militant belonging to the Isis group, in the outskirts of Kirkuk
40/98 Iraq
Iraqi women walk at the site of a car bomb explosion in the mainly Shiite Sadr City district in Baghdad, which killed at least seven people and wounded 20. The blast came amid a week-long militant offensive in which insurgents have seized vast swathes of territory in northern Iraq
41/98 Iraq
A member of the oil police force stands guard at Zubair oil field in Basra
Reuters
42/98 Iraq
An Iraqi man with a boy inspects the scene of a car bomb attack in Sadr city
EPA
43/98 Iraq
Iraqi Shiite tribesmen parade with their weapons in central Baghdad's Palestine Street as they show their willingness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over several northern Iraqi cities. Faced with a militant offensive sweeping south toward Baghdad, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced the Iraqi government would arm and equip civilians who volunteer to fight, and thousands have signed up
44/98 Iraq
Iraqi men queue at the entrance of a volunteer centre in Karbala city
EPA
45/98 Iraq
Members of the Shiite Muslim Mehdi Army militia, take part in training in the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Iraqi Shiite volunteers, who had been fighting in neighbouring Syria, have been heading home to battle an offensive that has brought militants to near Baghdad, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said
46/98 Iraq
An injured fighter (C) from the Isis group after a battle with Iraqi soldiers at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq
47/98 Iraq
Fighters from the Isis aiming at advancing Iraqi troops at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq
48/98 Iraq
Fighters from the Isis group taking position at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq
49/98 Iraq
Fighters from the Isis group inspecting vehicles of the Iraqi army after they were seized at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq
50/98 Iraq
Iraqi men flash victory signs as they leave the main recruiting center to join the Iraqi army in Baghdad
AP
51/98 Iraq
Refugees queue to register at a temporary camp in northern Iraq
Getty Images
52/98 Iraq
Newly-recruited Iraqi volunteers, wearing police forces uniforms, take part in a briefing at a training centre in Karbala
Getty Images
53/98 Iraq
Kurdish peshmerga forces keep guard around Tal Afar of Mosul
Getty Images
54/98 Iraq
One Iraqi captive, a corporal, is reluctant to say the slogan, and has to be shouted at repeatedly before he obeys
Sky News
55/98 Iraq
Iraqi captives held by the extremists
Sky News
56/98 Iraq
Iraqi captives held by the extremists
Sky News
57/98 Iraq
Shiite tribal fighters raise their weapons and chant slogans against the Isis group in the northwest Baghdad's Shula neighborhood
58/98 Iraq
Tribal fighters carry their weapons as they take part in an intensive security deployment in Dujail, north of Baghdad
59/98 Iraq
Iraqi soldiers watch as armed tribesmen gather to show their willingness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over several northern Iraqi cities in the southern city of Basra
60/98 Iraq
Shiite tribal fighters raise their weapons and chant slogans against the Isis group in the northwest Baghdad's Shula neighborhood
61/98 Iraq
Mehdi Army fighters loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr march during a military-style training in the holy city of Najaf. The United States said it could launch air strikes and act jointly with its arch-enemy Iran to support the Iraqi government, after a rampage by Sunni Islamist insurgents across Iraq that has scrambled alliances in the Middle East
62/98 Iraq
Volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi Army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, gather with their weapons during a parade on the streets in Basra, southeast of Baghdad
63/98 Iraq
An Iraqi young boy holds a weapon from the window of a car as people gather to show their readiness to join Iraqi security forces in the fight against Jihadist militants who have taken over several northern Iraqi cities in the capital Baghdad
64/98 Iraq
Tribal fighters from Ramadi hold up their weapons as they shout slogans in support of Iraqi security forces in Kerbala
65/98 Iraq
Iraqi security forces fire artillery during clashes with Sunni militant group Isis in Jurf al-Sakhar
66/98 Iraq
Iraqi security forces fire artillery during clashes with Sunni militant group Isis in Jurf al-Sakhar
67/98 Iraq
Ammar al-Hakim, leader of Iraq's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, exercises a shooting drill in the main army recruiting center in Baghdad. Thousands of Shiites from Baghdad and across southern Iraq answered an urgent call to arms, joining security forces to fight the Islamic militants who have captured large swaths of territory north of the capital and now imperil a city with a much-revered religious shrine
68/98 Iraq
An Iraqi security officer stands guard outside the Church of the Virgin Mary in the northern town of Bartala, east of the northern city of Mosul as some Iraqi security stayed in the town to protect the local churches and community
69/98 Iraq
The insurgent offensive that has threatened to dismember Iraq spread to the northwest of the country, when Sunni militants launched a dawn raid on a town close to the Syrian border, clashing with police and government forces
70/98 Iraq
Volunteers walk with their weapons during a parade in the streets in Al-Fdhiliya district, eastern Baghdad
71/98 Iraq
A volunteer, who has joined the Iraqi Army to fight against predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Isis group, holds a weapon during a parade in the streets in Al-Fdhiliya district, eastern Baghdad
72/98 Iraq
Militants of the Isis group force captured Iraqi security forces members to the transport
73/98 Iraq
Militants of the Isis group transporting dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members to an unknown location in the Salaheddin province ahead of executing them
74/98 Iraq
A major offensive spearheaded by Isis but also involving supporters of executed dictator Saddam Hussein has overrun all of one province and chunks of three others
75/98 Iraq
Militants of the Isis group executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province
76/98 Iraq
A women and a girl wash at a tap at a temporary displacement camp set up next to a Kurdish checkpoint in Kalak. Thousands of people have fled Iraq's second city of Mosul after it was overrun by Isis (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) militants. Many have been temporarily housed at various IDP (internally displaced persons) camps around the region including the area close to Erbil, as they hope to enter the safety of the nearby Kurdish region
77/98 Iraq
Families arrive at a Kurdish checkpoint next to a temporary displacement camp in Kalak
78/98 Iraq
An Iraqi refugee girl from Mosul stands outside her family's tent at Khazir refugee camp outside Irbil, 217 miles (350 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Days after Iraq's second-largest city fell to Isis fighters, some Iraqis are already returning to Mosul, lured back by insurgents offering cheap gas and food, restoring power and water and removing traffic barricades
79/98 Iraq
Civilians escape from Mosul and come to a region that close to Erbil city and are placed to camp by United Nations and Kurd government in Iraq
80/98 Iraq
Young men in Baghdad chant slogans against Isis outside the main army recruiting
centre yesterday, where they are volunteering to fight the extremist group
Karin Kadim/AP
81/98 Iraq
Volunteers who have joined the Iraqi Army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants, who have taken over Mosul and other Northern provinces, board an army truck in Baghdad
82/98 Iraq
Isis militants taking position at a Iraqi border post on the Syrian-Iraqi border between the Iraqi Nineveh province and the Syrian town of Al-Hasakah
83/98 Iraq
Isis rebels show their flag after seizing an army post
AFP/Getty Images
84/98 Iraq
Isis militants waving an Islamist flag after the seizure of an Iraqi army checkpoint in Salahuddin
Getty Images
85/98 Iraq
A girl, who fled from the violence in Mosul, carries a case of water at a camp on the outskirts of Arbil in Iraq's Kurdistan region
86/98 Iraq
A displaced Iraqi woman washes her family's laundry as the children shower outside their tent at a temporary camp set up to shelter civilians fleeing violence in Iraq's northern Nineveh province in Aski kalak, 40 kms west of the Kurdish autonomous region's capital Arbil
87/98 Iraq
Iraqi refugees from Mosul arrive at Khazir refugee camp outside Irbil, 217 miles (350 kilometers) north of Baghdad
AP
88/98 Iraq
Refugees flee Mosul
AP
89/98 Iraq
Iraqi families fleeing violence in the northern Nineveh province gather at a Kurdish checkpoint in Aski kalak, 40 kms West of Arbil, in the autonomous Kurdistan region
90/98 Iraq
Refugees fleeing from Mosul head to the self-ruled northern Kurdish region in Irbil, Iraq, 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Baghdad
AP
91/98 Iraq
An Iraqi woman carries her property while fleeing from Mosul to Arbil and Duhok due to the clashes between security forces and militants of Isis in Arbil
92/98 Iraq
Iraqi people receive water as they flee from Mosul to Arbil and Duhok
93/98 Iraq
A woman carries a child as families fleeing the violence in the Iraqi city of Mosul wait at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region. Radical Sunni Muslim insurgents seized control of most of Iraq's second largest city of Mosul, overrunning a military base and freeing hundreds of prisoners in a spectacular strike against the Shi'ite-led Iraqi government
94/98 Iraq
An Iraqi man and his wife flee from Mosul to Arbil and Duhok
95/98 Iraq
The residents gather at a security checkpoint between the provinces of Irbil and Duhok which is controlled by Kurdish Peshmerga troops
96/98 Iraq
Uniforms reportedly belonging to Iraqi security forces scattered on the road
AFP
97/98 Iraq
An armoured vehicle belonging to Iraqi security forces in flames, after hundreds of militants from the Isis group launched a major assault on the security forces in Mosul, some 370 km north from the Iraqi capital Baghdad
98/98 Iraq
Civilian children stand next to a burnt vehicle during clashes between Iraqi security forces and Isis group in the northern Iraq city of Mosul
Followers of Isis have flooded Twitter with pictures of the bodies of their enemies but they have also used the medium to show functioning hospitals and a consultative administrative process. It is not clear which will prevail in Iraq: possibly both.
The fall of Mosul has changed the balance of power between Iraq’s three main communities; Shia, Sunni and Kurds. Shia rule in non-Shia areas has received a blow from which it will be difficult for it to recover; Kurdish dominance in mixed Kurdish-Arab areas will expand; the five or six million Sunni Arabs will never be marginalised again.
It is not just in Iraq that the balance of power is changing. The Iraq-Syrian border no longer exists for most practical purposes. In Syria Isis forces will become vastly more powerful because the movement can draw on fighters, weapons and money from its newly conquered territories in Iraq. The rest of the Syrian military opposition to President Bashar al-Assad will find it difficult to compete on the battlefield with Isis if it manages to consolidate its recent victories.
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