Kerry in Baghdad as jihadists seize new towns

US Secretary of State John Kerry has arrived in Iraq's capital, Baghdad as Sunni insurgents expand their control of towns across north-western Iraq. In Egypt on Sunday, Kerry warned that Sunni militants Isis' ’ideology of violence and repression is a threat not only to Iraq but to the entire region’. On Sunday rebels - spearheaded by Isis militants - captured border crossings to Syria and Jordan. The strategically important airport in the northern Tal Afar has also fallen. The town controls the main road from the Syrian border to Mosul, Iraq's second biggest city, which was captured by the rebels two weeks ago. Officials said the rebels of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levent  took two key crossings in Anbar on Sunday, a day after seizing one at Qaim, a town in the province that borders Syria. The capture of Tal Afar airport is a blow to the government as they were hoping to use it as a springboard to recapture the city of Mosul, says Jim Muir in northern Iraq. US Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in Cairo on Sunday, urged Iraq's leaders ‘to rise above sectarian motivations and form a government that is united in its determination to meet the needs and speak to the demands of all of their people’, according to BBC.