BAGHDAD (AP) — Al-Qaida-inspired militants pushed deeper
into Iraq’s Sunni heartland Wednesday, swiftly conquering Saddam
Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit as soldiers and security forces abandoned
their posts and yielded ground once controlled by U.S. forces.
The
advance into former insurgent strongholds that had largely been calm
before the Americans withdrew less than three years ago is spreading
fear that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, struggling to hold onto power
after indecisive elections, will be unable to stop the Islamic militants
as they press closer to Baghdad.
Fighters from the Islamic State
of Iraq and the Levant militant group took control Tuesday of much of
Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul, sending an estimated half a million
people fleeing from their homes. As in Tikrit, the Sunni militants were
able to move in after police and military forces melted away after
relatively brief clashes.
The group, which has seized wide swaths
of territory, aims to create an Islamic emirate spanning both sides of
the Iraq-Syria border.
The capture of Mosul — along with the fall
of Tikrit and the militants’ earlier seizure of the western city of
Fallujah — have undone hard-fought gains against insurgents in the years
following the 2003 invasion by U.S.-led forces.
The White House
said the security situation has deteriorated over the past 24 hours and
that the United States was "deeply concerned" about ISIL’s continued
aggression.
There were no reliable estimates of casualties or the
number of insurgents involved, though several hundred gunmen were in
Tikrit and more were fighting on the outskirts, said Mizhar Fleih, the
deputy head of the municipal council of nearby Samarra. An even larger
number of militants likely would have been needed to secure Mosul, a
much bigger city.
The militants gained entry to the Turkish
consulate in Mosul and held captive 48 people, including diplomats,
police, consulate employees and three children, according to an official
in the office of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkish
officials believe the hostages are safe, he said, speaking on condition
of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment to reporters on
the sensitive issue.
The White House said in a statement that Vice
President Joe Biden spoke with Erdogan and called for the safe and
immediate return of the Turkish personnel and family members. "The Vice
President told Prime Minister Erdogan that the United States is prepared
to support Turkey’s efforts to bring about the safe return of its
citizens."
Turkish officials did not make any public comment on
the seizure, but the state-run Anadolu Agency reported that Erdogan
convened an emergency Cabinet meeting. U.N. Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon strongly condemned the abductions and the seizure of Iraqi
territory by the militants, urging "the international community to unite
in showing solidarity with Iraq as it confronts this serious security
challenge."
"Terrorism must not be allowed to succeed in undoing the path towards democracy in Iraq," Ban
said.
While
the insurgents have advanced southward, Baghdad did not appear to be in
imminent danger from a similar assault, although Sunni insurgents have
stepped up car bombings and suicide attacks in the capital in recent
months.
So far, ISIL fighters have stuck to the Sunni heartland
and former Sunni insurgent strongholds where people are already
alienated by the Shiite-led government over allegations of
discrimination and mistreatment. The militants also would likely meet
far stronger resistance, not only from government forces but by Shiite
militias if they tried to advance on the capital.
Mosul, the
capital of Ninevah province, and the neighboring Sunni-dominated
province of Anbar share a long and porous border with Syria, where the
Islamic State is also active.
Mosul’s fall was a heavy defeat for
al-Maliki. His Shiite-dominated political bloc came first in April 30
parliamentary elections — the first since the U.S. military withdrawal
in 2011 — but failed to gain a majority, forcing him to try to build a
governing coalition.
Al-Maliki said a "conspiracy" led to the
massive security failure that allowed militants to capture Mosul, and
warned that members of the security forces who fled rather than stand up
to the militants should be punished.
He stopped short of
assigning direct blame, however, choosing to focus instead on plans to
fight back — without giving specifics.
"We are working to solve
the situation," al-Maliki said. "We are regrouping the armed forces that
are in charge of clearing Ninevah from those terrorists."
Al-Maliki has pressed parliament to declare a state of emergency over the Mosul attack — a decision
expected later this week.
Iranian
airlines cancelled all flights between Tehran and Baghdad due to
security concerns, and the Islamic Republic has intensified security
measures along its borders, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.
Shiite
powerhouse Iran has strong ties with Iraq’s government. Some 17,000
Iranian pilgrims are in Iraq at any given time, the agency quoted Saeed
Ohadi, the director of Iran’s Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization, as
saying.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest warned that the
instability was rapidly becoming a humanitarian issue requiring a
coordinated response by Iraq’s leaders to halt ISIL’s advance and wrest
territory away from insurgents.
"We condemn ISIL’s despicable
attack on the Turkish consulate in Mosul, and we call for the immediate
release of Turkey’s kidnapped diplomatic and security personnel, Earnest
said.
Earnest told reporters traveling with President Barack
Obama that ISIL poses a "different kind of threat" to American interests
than core al-Qaida, which had repeatedly and publicly vowed to attack
U.S. soil. Still, he said the U.S. was watching the threat from ISIL
"very carefully" because the group has proven itself to be violent and
willing to consider attacking U.S. interests and American allies.
Zaineb
al-Assam, a Middle East analyst at IHS Country Risk, said ISIL’s
success in holding onto Mosul would significantly weaken Baghdad’s
control over Sunni-dominated provinces.
"The objective would be to
keep Iraqi security forces off balance, tying them down on passive
security duties, as well as to erode (the government’s) presence and its
ability to sustain services," al-Assam said.
Tikrit residents
said the militant group overran several police stations in the
Sunni-dominated city. Two Iraqi security officials confirmed that the
city, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Baghdad and the capital of
Salahuddin province, was under ISIL’s control and that the provincial
governor was missing.
The major oil refinery in Beiji, located
between Mosul and Tikrit, remained in government control, the officials
said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized
to talk to reporters. There were clashes and gunmen tried to take the
town but were repelled in a rare success for Iraqi government forces
protecting an important facility, the officials said.
In addition
to being Saddam’s hometown, Tikrit was a power base of his once-powerful
Baath Party. The former dictator was captured by U.S. forces while
hiding in a hole in the area and he is buried south of town in a tomb
draped with the Saddam-era Iraqi flag.
The International
Organization for Migration estimated 500,000 people fled the Mosul area,
with some seeking safety in the Ninevah countryside or the nearby
semiautonomous Kurdish region. Getting into the latter has grown
trickier, however, with migrants without family members already in the
enclave needing to secure permission from Kurdish authorities, according
to the IOM.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Mosul’s fall
must bring the country’s leaders together to deal with the "serious,
mortal threat" facing Iraq.
"We can push back on the terrorists
… and there would be a closer cooperation between Baghdad and the
Kurdistan Regional Government to work together and try to flush out
these foreign fighters," he said on the sidelines of a diplomatic
meeting in Athens.
Mosul residents said gunmen went around
knocking on doors there Wednesday, reassuring people they would not be
harmed. The situation appeared calm but tense, they said.
Violence raged elsewhere in Iraq on Wednesday.
Police
and hospital officials said a suicide bomber struck inside a tent where
tribesmen were meeting to solve a dispute in Baghdad’s Shiite Sadr City
neighborhood, killing 31 and wounding 46.
Car bombs in Shiite
areas elsewhere claimed another 17 and maimed dozens, officials said,
speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to
talk to the media. Car bombs and suicide attackers are favorite tools of
the ISIL.
___
Schreck reported from Dubai, United Arab
Emirates. Associated Press Writers Elena Becatoros in Athens, Qassim
Abdul-Zahra in Boston, Desmond Butler in Istanbul, Josh Lederman in
Washington and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to
this report.