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| Refugees fleeing from Mosul head to the self-ruled northern Kurdish region in Irbil, Iraq, 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Baghdad, Tuesday, June 10, 2014. Islamic militants overran parts of Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul on Tuesday, driving security forces from their posts and seizing the provincial government headquarters, security bases and other key buildings. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pressed parliament to declare a state of emergency. |
BAGHDAD (AP)
-- In a stunning assault that exposed Iraq's eroding central authority,
al-Qaida-inspired militants overran much of Mosul on Tuesday, seizing
government buildings, pushing out security forces and capturing military
vehicles as thousands of residents fled the second-largest city.
The
rampage by the black banner-waving insurgents was a heavy defeat for
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as he tries to hold onto power, and
highlighted the growing strength of the Islamic State of Iraq and the
Levant. The group has been advancing in both Iraq and neighboring Syria,
capturing territory in a campaign to set up a militant enclave
straddling the border.
There were no immediate
estimates on how many people were killed in the assault, a stark
reminder of the reversals in Iraq since U.S. forces left in late 2011.
Earlier this year, Islamic State fighters took control of Fallujah, and government forces have been unable to take it back.
Mosul
is a much bigger, more strategic prize. The city and surrounding
Ninevah province, which is on the doorstep of Iraq's relatively
prosperous Kurdish region, are a major export route for Iraqi oil and a
gateway to Syria.
"This isn't Fallujah. This
isn't a place you can just cordon off and forget about," said Michael
Knights, a regional security analyst at the Washington Institute for
Near East Policy. "It's essential to Iraq."
Al-Maliki
pressed parliament to declare a state of emergency that would grant him
greater powers, saying the public and government must unite "to
confront this vicious attack, which will spare no Iraqi." Legal experts
said these powers could include imposing curfews, restricting public
movements and censoring the media.
State TV
said lawmakers would convene Thursday. Parliament speaker Osama
al-Nujaifi, a Sunni from Mosul, called the rout "a disaster by any
standard."
Regaining Mosul poses a daunting
challenge for the Shiite prime minister. The city of about 1.4 milliion
has a Sunni Muslim majority and many in the community are already deeply
embittered against his Shiite-led government. During the nearly
nine-year American presence in the country, Mosul was a major stronghold
for al-Qaida. U.S. and Iraqi forces carried out repeated offensives
there, regaining a semblance of control but never routing the insurgents
entirely.
"It's going to be difficult to
reconstitute the forces to clear and hold the city," Knights said.
"There aren't a lot of spare forces around Iraq."
White
House spokesman Josh Earnest deplored what he called the "despicable"
acts of violence against civilians in Mosul. He said Washington is
committed to its partnership with Baghdad but is urging the government
to take steps to be more inclusive of all Iraqis.
U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attacks across Iraq in
recent days "that have killed and wounded scores of civilians." He urged
all political leaders "to show national unity against the threats
facing Iraq, which can only be addressed on the basis of the
constitution and within the democratic political process," according to
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Insurgents
and Iraqi troops have been fighting for days in Mosul, but the security
forces' hold appeared to collapse late Monday night and early Tuesday.
Gunmen
overran the Ninevah provincial government building - a key symbol of
state control - Monday evening, and the governor fled the city. The
fighters stormed police stations, bases and prisons, capturing weapons
and freeing inmates. Security forces melted away, abandoning many of
their posts, and militants seized large caches of weapons.
They
took control of the city's airport and captured helicopters, as well as
an airbase 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of the city, the parliament
speaker said.
Later Tuesday, Islamic State
fighters took over the large town of Hawija, 125 kilometers (75 miles)
south of Mosul, according to officials there.
On
Tuesday, the militants appeared to hold much of the eastern half of
Mosul, which is bisected by the Tigris River. Residents said fighters
were raising the black banners that are the emblem of the Islamic State.
Video
taken from a car driving through the streets of Mosul and posted online
showed burning vehicles in the streets, black-masked gunmen in pickup
trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns, and residents walking with
suitcases.
ISIL supporters posted photos on
social media showing fighters next to Humvees and other U.S.-made
military vehicles captured from Iraqi forces.
The video and photos appeared authentic and matched Associated Press reporting of the events.
A
government employee who lives about a mile from the provincial
headquarters, Umm Karam, said she left with her family Tuesday morning.
"The
situation is chaotic inside the city and there is nobody to help us,"
she said "We are afraid. ... There is no police or army in Mosul." She
spoke on condition she be identified only by her nickname for fear of
her safety.
An estimated 500,000 people have
fled Mosul, according to a U.N. spokesman in New York, citing the
International Organization for Migration. The spokesman said aid
organizations hope to reach those in need with food, water, sanitation
and other essential supplies as soon as the volatile security situation
permits.
The Islamic State has ramped up its
insurgency over the past two years, presenting itself as the Sunni
community's champion against al-Maliki's government
The
group was once al-Qaida's branch in Iraq, but under its leader Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi it has escalated its ambitions, sending fighters into Syria
to join the rebellion against President Bashar Assad. Its jihadists
became notorious as some of the most ruthless fighters in the rebellion -
and other rebels turned against it, accusing it of trying to hijack the
movement. Al-Qaida's central command, angered over its intervention in
Syria, threw the group out of the terrorist network.
But
it has been making gains on both sides of the border. In Syria, it took
control of an eastern provincial capital of Raqqa, and in the past
month it has launched an offensive working its way toward the Iraqi
border.
Islamic State fighters in eastern
Syria crossed into Iraq to help their brethren in the Mosul area,
activists on the Syrian side said. They tried to take the border
crossing itself, but Kurdish fighters on either side fended them off.
The militants were able to seize the nearest Iraqi town to the border,
Rabeea, the activists said.
The group earlier
this year took over Fallujah and parts of Sunni-dominated Anbar
province, and has stepped up its long-running campaign of bombings and
other violence in Baghdad and elsewhere.
The
Mosul crisis comes as al-Maliki is working to assemble a coalition after
elections in late April, relying even more on Shiite parties. Sunnis
and Kurds have grown increasingly disillusioned with al-Maliki, accusing
him of dominating power.
The autonomous
Kurdish region in the north has its own armed forces - the peshmerga -
and on Tuesday, the region's prime minister suggested his willingness to
intervene beyond the formal borders of the self-ruled enclave. That
could be politically explosive, since the Mosul region lies on
Kurdistan's doorstep, has a significant Kurdish population, and the
Kurds claim parts of the area.
Militant gains
in territories the Kurds consider theirs could push them "to send in
their own troops to protect communities they consider as part of their
jurisdiction," said Jordan Perry, an analyst at risk analysis firm
Maplecroft.
Kurdistan's prime minister,
Nechirvan Barzani, sharply criticized Baghdad's handling of the Mosul
crisis, saying the Kurds had tried unsuccessfully to work with Iraqi
security forces to protect the city.
"Tragically, Baghdad adopted a position which has prevented the establishment of this cooperation," he said in a statement.
Barzani
urged the Kurds to aid those displaced from Mosul and called on the
U.N. refugee agency to help with the relief effort. He said the
peshmerga are prepared to handle security in areas outside the regional
government's jurisdiction - presumably referring to parts around Mosul
inhabited by Kurds that are disputed with the central government.
Kurdish
official Razgar Khoushnaw said about 10,000 Mosul residents took refuge
Tuesday in the Kurdish province of Irbil, while security officials in
neighboring Dahuk province said 5,000 displaced people were let in
there.
Far larger numbers of people are believed to have fled Mosul for other communities in the Ninevah countryside.
