Islamist militants effectively took control of oil-rich Mosul on Tuesday June 10,2014 after 4 days of heavy fighting
As many as 500,000 Iraqis have been forced to flee the country's second
biggest city of Mosul after militants from an al-Qaeda splinter group
seized control
Refugees fleeing from Mosul head to the self-ruled northern Kurdish
region in Irbil, Iraq, 350 kilometers (217 miles) north of Baghdad
Militants have seized the Turkish consulate in the northern Iraqi city of
Mosul and efforts are under way to ensure the safety of diplomatic
staff
A Mosul businessman who has fled the city of Mosul told the Guardian: 'The city fell like a plane without an engine.'
Another
resident explained that after government forces began to desert the
city they felt compelled to leave in case the government started to bomb
the city to force out the militants
The rampage through Mosul - which is near the Turkish and Syrian border - 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.
ISIS in Iraq
- The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has 3,000 to 5,000 fighters, and grew out of an al-Qaeda-linked organisation in Iraq
- ISIS has exploited the standoff between the Iraqi government
and the minority Sunni Arab community, which complains that Shia PM
Nouri Maliki is monopolising power
- It has already taken over Ramadi and Falluja, but taking over
Mosul is a far greater feat than anything the movement has achieved so
far, and will send shockwaves throughout the region
- The organisation is led by Abu Bakr al Baghdadi
- an obscure figure regarded as a battlefield commander and tactician.
He was once the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, one of the groups that later
became ISIS.
No comments:
Post a Comment