Militants kill 21 after seizing more Iraq towns

Sunni militants resorted to killing spree in towns and village after government security forces left several towns. The jihadists advanced in western Iraq and killed 21 people. Meanwhile, America’s top diplomat called Sunday for Iraqi leaders to rise above sectarianism. It is the latest in a series of setbacks for Iraqi forces, which are struggling to hold their ground in the face of an insurgent onslaught that has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and sparked fears that the country could tear itself apart. The militants, led by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), seized the towns of Rawa and Ana after taking the Al-Qaim border crossing on Saturday, residents said. They then gunned down 21 local people in Rawa and Ana in 2 days of violence. The government said its forces had made a ‘tactical’ withdrawal from the towns, control of which allows the militants to open a strategic route to neighbouring Syria where they also hold swathes of countryside along the Euphrates river valley, according to AFP.