Obama sends more troops as Iraq battles to stop \\\'jihadists\\\'

President Barack Obama has deployed 200 more troops to Baghdad to protect the US embassy as Iraq’s parliament was set to convene on Tuesday to seek a solution to the country’s sectarian crisis. ‘In the light of the security situation in Baghdad, I have ordered up to approximately 200 additional US Armed Forces personnel to Iraq to reinforce security at the US Embassy, its support facilities, and the Baghdad International Airport,’ Obama said in a letter to Congress released on Monday. The latest deployment which the Pentagon said had arrived in Iraq on Sunday brings the number of US troops and embassy security forces to 800. Iraqi forces meanwhile pressed a counter-offensive against the jidahists at executed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, one of a string of towns and cities overrun by the ISIL-led jidahists. The conflict has displaced hundreds of thousands and piled pressure on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Maliki’s bid for a third term in office has been battered by the offensive and he is no longer seen as the clear frontrunner when the new parliament elected in April holds its opening session on Tuesday.
-‘Sense of ambition’-
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) renamed itself simply the Islamic State (IS) and declared its shadowy frontman the leader of the world’s Muslims, in a clear challenge to Al-Qaeda for control of the global jihadist movement. IS announced on Sunday that it was establishing a ‘caliphate’ – an Islamic form of government last seen under the Ottoman Empire – extending now from Aleppo in northern Syria to Diyala province in eastern Iraq, the regions where it has fought against the regimes in power. In an audio recording posted online, the group declared its chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ‘the caliph’ and ‘leader for Muslims everywhere’. Henceforth, the group said, he is to be known as ‘caliph Ibrahim’ – a reference to his real name, according to AFP.