Islamists seize Iraqi city of Mosul

Islamic extremists have grabbed control of much of Mosul in northern Iraq after troops abandoned their posts and government buildings, in a serious blow to Baghdad's efforts to slow a raging insurgency.

After four days of fighting in which the country’s third-most populous city all but slipped from its grasp, Baghdad announced it would arm citizens in a bid to curb the threat from extremists in three cities and much of the northern countryside. Details about the plan were initially sparse, but Iraqi officials suggested a collaboration between tribal leaders and the US military that quelled an insurgency in 2007 might be used as a template.

Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki said during a televised news conference that he had asked the Iraqi parliament to declare a state of emergency.

Penetrated into Syria

Officials in Mosul say the city is now effectively in the hands of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), a group inspired by al-Qa

eda that has remained in control of parts of Falluja and Ramadi for the past six months. Isis has carved out a cross-border swath of influence in Syria; from al-Bab, east of Aleppo, through the lawless eastern deserts and into Anbar province, Iraq.

The Iraqi military has been unable to stop Isis’s advance, or multiple-bombing campaigns the Sunni extremist group frequently launches in an effort to disrupt the country’s Shia power base and to re-establish a caliphate governed by fundamentalist Islamic law.

With its authority steadily crumbling, Iraq has asked the Obama administration to provide it with missiles and artillery. Iraq has not sought a return of US forces and President Obama has been deeply reluctant to commit to deploying troops in the region.

Strategic posts in Mosul were seized after four days of running battles with security forces, many of which withdrew yesterday after hundreds of extremists edged closer to the city centre.

Militants released prisoners from the city’s prisons and are reported to have raised the Isis flag above civic buildings. Developments appear to have caught senior Iraqi officials off guard in Baghdad, where Mr Maliki has been trying for the past six weeks to assemble a coalition that would secure him a third term as leader after parliamentary elections in May.

Gathering insurgency

Mr Maliki said he would create a leadership group responsible for sourcing and arming residents. He offered no details of when arming might take place, or who might receive weapons.

Maliki had positioned himself as the only Iraqi politician who could stand up to Isis. But his forces have been unable to win back Fallujah, or Ramadi and seem impotent as the insurgency gathers steam.

Iraqi officials believe about 6,000 Isis militants are in Iraq, although the number could be several thousand greater with members regularly crossing the porous border with Syria.

Battle-hardened units The group’s leadership

almost exclusively comprises Iraqis, battle-hardened by close to a decade-long insurgency against US forces and a gruelling civil war against the country’s Shias. But its rank and file hails from all corners of the Arab world, as well as Europe, south Asia and south-east Asia.

Isis played a prominent role in Syria’s civil war throughout last year, subverting moderate and Islamist groups lined up against Bashar al-Assad’s regime in the north of the country.

Ever since, Isis leaders have consolidated their power base in the eastern city of Raqqa while intensifying operations in Iraq. Mosul had remained restive even after the Awakening project, which quelled an earlier jihadist insurgency in 2007.

Then, as now, jihadists aspiring to restore a caliphate, had imposed a ruthless hardline regime upon communities that had initially agreed to host them. The Anbar awakening helped to bring relative normality to Falluja and Ramadi until late last year, but Mosul and its surroundings were still largely ungovernable. – (Guardian service)