Battle for Baquba: Isis Sunnis wrestle with Shiite Iraqis for control of the last major town before Baghdad Tuesday June 17,2014

Fierce fighting erupted at the northern approaches to Baghdad today Tuesday June 17,2014 as pro-Govt Shiite militiamen desperately clung on to the last town before the capital in the face of a lightning-quick assault by Sunni Arab militants.

Meanwhile, in the west, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant claimed it has taken control of the key border areas near Tal Afar and is rounding up Iraqi soldiers after a battle at an undisclosed location near the Syrian/Iraq border.

It is part of their stated aim to mark out the frontiers of a new Islamic state, merging the Iraqi areas they now control with rebel areas in Syria to form a Caliphate.

USA has deployed some 275 military personnel to protect its embassy in Baghdad, the first time it has sent troops to Iraq since it withdrew its forces at the end of 2011 after a bloody and costly intervention launched in 2003

Since the insurgents launched their lightning assault on June 9, they have captured Mosul, a city of two million people, and a big chunk of mainly Sunni Arab territory stretching towards the capital.

The offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and sent jitters through world oil markets as the militants have advanced ever nearer Baghdad leaving the Shiite-led government in disarray.

Iraqi Shiite tribesmen brandish 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

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

 

Iraqi men buy military uniforms at a shop in Basra, south-east of Baghdad