Sunni militants seize more Iraqi towns as US presses for unity

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FE Team | Published: June 23, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

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BAGHDAD, June 22 (AFP): Sunni militants advanced through west Iraq after seizing a strategic Syria border crossing, as US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in the region Sunday aiming to bridge widening rifts.
The latest assaults saw the security forces making "tactical" withdrawals in the face of an insurgent onslaught that has displaced hundreds of thousands and alarmed the world amid fears Iraq 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.
The government said its forces had made a "tactical" withdrawal from the towns, control of which has allowed the militants to open up a strategic route to neighbouring Syria, where they also control swathes of countryside along the Euphrates river valley. ISIL aims to create an Islamic state that will incorporate both Iraq and Syria, where the group has become a major force in the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad.
Washington wants Arab states to bring pressure on Iraq's leaders to speed up government formation, which has made little headway since elections in April.
While American leaders have stopped short of calling for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to step down-arguing that it is up to the Iraqis to choose their own leaders-they have left little doubt that they feel the Shiite premier has squandered the opportunity to rebuild his country since US troops withdrew in 2011.
"We gave Iraq the chance to have an inclusive democracy. To work across sectarian lines, to provide a better future for their children," President Barack Obama told CNN Friday.
"Unfortunately what we've seen is a breakdown of trust."
The seizure of Al-Qaim leaves just one of three official border crossings with Syria in the hands of the federal government. The third is controlled by Kurdish forces.
Anti-government fighters already hold areas of the western desert province of Anbar, which abuts the Syrian border, after taking all of one city and parts of another earlier in the year.
Elsewhere, Iraqi government forces, fighting back against the insurgents after initially wilting before their onslaught, Sunday launched an air strike on the militant-held city of Tikrit, killing at least seven people, residents of the city said.
The insurgents also clashed with security forces and pro-government tribal fighters in Al-Alam, just east of Tikrit, with militants killing the women's affairs adviser to the provincial governor.
The firefight, which began Saturday evening, continued into Sunday.
The fighting came as Kerry landed in Cairo on a trip to the Middle East and Europe, with the US aiming to unite Iraq's fractious leaders and repel the militants.
America's top diplomat was also due to visit Amman, Brussels and Paris, where Washington is also expected to push for greater efforts to cut off funding to ISIL.
Meanwile, An air strike on the insurgent- controlled Iraqi city of Tikrit killed at least seven people on Sunday, as the authorities seek to stem a swift Sunni militant offensive.
The air strike, reported by state television and witnesses, comes after a lightning advance earlier this month in which insurgents including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant jihadist group overran a swathe of territory, including Tikrit.
The television said the strike targeted a group of militants and killed 40 of them, while witnesses told AFP the attack hit a petrol station in the centre of the city, which is the capital of Salaheddin province north of Baghdad.
The witnesses said seven people were killed, but did not know whether the casualties were fighters.
AP report adds: Iran's top leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is against US intervention in neighbouring Iraq, where Islamic extremists and Sunni militants opposed to Tehran have seized a number of towns and cities.
"We strongly oppose the intervention of the U.S. and others in the domestic affairs of Iraq," Khamenei was quoted as saying by the IRNA state news agency on Sunday, in his first reaction to the crisis.
"The main dispute in Iraq is between those who want Iraq to join the U.S. camp and those who seek an independent Iraq," said Khamenei, who has the final say over government policies. "The U.S. aims to bring its own blind followers to power."
Shiite Iran supports the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, and has said it would consider any request for military aid.