Big difference....
What do you think BAMBI's message is to the likes of them?
???????Ill try not to laugh!
All those "peace loving Muslims" knew if they fucked with Ronnie, Ronnie would have them trying to bang 72 virgins in a matter of hours if they pulled any stunts on him.I'm Guessing That Arabic has been spoken in The Rose Garden before, idiot Terrorist Supporting POS.
What do you think BAMBI's message is to the likes of them?
???????Ill try not to laugh!
Fucked with Ronnie??? They were THRILLED with Ronnie giving Guns To Iran and arming and funding The Taliban to Fuck with him. Best friend they ever had. Although I don't know if Ronnie Kissed them on the lips and held their hands like GWB did.
BAMBI's Message to them? Ask Bin Laden if you can find him at sea.
[h=1]Bid to end suffering of chickens blocked after Muslims complain that it would undermine their rights to slaughter birds according to Islamic rituals[/h]
To the dismay of animal welfare groups, the laws were unexpectedly delayed just days before they were due to be implemented last month.
Senior vets and campaigners said that the delay was ‘outrageous’ and some have now threatened to report ministers to the European Commission for failing to implement the EU-wide rules.
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Masood Khwaja, a Muslim food consultant, said: 'In order to meet the religious requirements of halal, light stunning should be done but not enough to kill the animal'
They would have forced many abattoirs to use a more powerful electric shock than they do now to stun chickens before they are killed.
The move follows research that suggests that many birds are still conscious and suffer pain when they are slaughtered, but that higher levels of shock would guarantee they were insensible.
However, Muslim leaders said that the new levels could kill birds before they could be slaughtered, meaning they would no longer be halal.
According to Islamic rituals, the birds have to be alive when their throats are slit so their hearts are still pumping and their blood is properly drained.
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For meat to be halal the slaughter must be performed by a male Muslim who precedes slaughter by invoking the name of Allah and then saying three times Allahu akbar. The animal must be slaughtered by cutting the throat, windpipe and the blood vessels in the neck, causing the animal's death without cutting the spinal cord
Halal producers had been planning a judicial review to try to prevent the Government implementing the new laws after the Halal Food Authority, which certifies abattoirs that follow the correct rituals, warned they may be forced to abandon all pre-stunning of chickens.
The Department for Environment halted the new Welfare Of Animals At The Time Of Killing rules on May 19.
A spokesman said last night: ‘We realised that our regulations might have unintended consequences in that they could limit religious freedoms.
'This is a complex area and we need to get it right.’
The spokesman stressed that ‘robust’ existing regulations surrounding welfare remained in place.
British Veterinary Association president Robin Hargreaves, who campaigns for better conditions in abattoirs, said: ‘Failure to implement the new regulations risks a percentage of chickens being ineffectively stunned, thus compromising animal welfare.’
A spokesman for the Compassion in World Farming pressure group said the decision meant thousands of chickens could daily be enduring ‘horrific’ deaths.
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Some supermarkets stock halal food as do some restaurants like Subway and Pizza Express
‘It is outrageous for the Government to beat about the bush while chickens are suffering illegal slaughter,’ he added.
Norman Bagley of the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers, which represents halal producers, said that he welcomed the delay as there was no evidence the present system used in abattoirs was inadequate.
Masood Khwaja, a Muslim food consultant, said: ‘In order to meet the religious requirements of halal, light stunning should be done but not enough to kill the animal.’
There have been problems in implementing the new law in some EU countries, including Germany, but others such as Denmark have taken a tough line.
.
- Muslims can only eat food that is prepared according to shariah
- Campaigners have threatened to report ministers to European Commission for not implementing the EU-wide rules
- Research that suggests that many birds are still conscious and suffer pain when they are slaughtered
To the dismay of animal welfare groups, the laws were unexpectedly delayed just days before they were due to be implemented last month.
Senior vets and campaigners said that the delay was ‘outrageous’ and some have now threatened to report ministers to the European Commission for failing to implement the EU-wide rules.
+3
Masood Khwaja, a Muslim food consultant, said: 'In order to meet the religious requirements of halal, light stunning should be done but not enough to kill the animal'
They would have forced many abattoirs to use a more powerful electric shock than they do now to stun chickens before they are killed.
The move follows research that suggests that many birds are still conscious and suffer pain when they are slaughtered, but that higher levels of shock would guarantee they were insensible.
However, Muslim leaders said that the new levels could kill birds before they could be slaughtered, meaning they would no longer be halal.
According to Islamic rituals, the birds have to be alive when their throats are slit so their hearts are still pumping and their blood is properly drained.
- SHARE PICTURE
+3
For meat to be halal the slaughter must be performed by a male Muslim who precedes slaughter by invoking the name of Allah and then saying three times Allahu akbar. The animal must be slaughtered by cutting the throat, windpipe and the blood vessels in the neck, causing the animal's death without cutting the spinal cord
Halal producers had been planning a judicial review to try to prevent the Government implementing the new laws after the Halal Food Authority, which certifies abattoirs that follow the correct rituals, warned they may be forced to abandon all pre-stunning of chickens.
The Department for Environment halted the new Welfare Of Animals At The Time Of Killing rules on May 19.
A spokesman said last night: ‘We realised that our regulations might have unintended consequences in that they could limit religious freedoms.
'This is a complex area and we need to get it right.’
The spokesman stressed that ‘robust’ existing regulations surrounding welfare remained in place.
British Veterinary Association president Robin Hargreaves, who campaigns for better conditions in abattoirs, said: ‘Failure to implement the new regulations risks a percentage of chickens being ineffectively stunned, thus compromising animal welfare.’
A spokesman for the Compassion in World Farming pressure group said the decision meant thousands of chickens could daily be enduring ‘horrific’ deaths.
+3
Some supermarkets stock halal food as do some restaurants like Subway and Pizza Express
‘It is outrageous for the Government to beat about the bush while chickens are suffering illegal slaughter,’ he added.
Norman Bagley of the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers, which represents halal producers, said that he welcomed the delay as there was no evidence the present system used in abattoirs was inadequate.
Masood Khwaja, a Muslim food consultant, said: ‘In order to meet the religious requirements of halal, light stunning should be done but not enough to kill the animal.’
There have been problems in implementing the new law in some EU countries, including Germany, but others such as Denmark have taken a tough line.
.
Hardline Muslims have been trying to take over schools in Birmingham.UK
[h=1]'Trojan Horse': Birmingham academy trust criticised[/h]
A leaked report has been critical of Park View School in Birmingham
The Birmingham academy trust at the centre of the so-called Trojan Horse allegations has been accused of running schools which have "taken the Islamic focus too far".
A leaked draft report on Park View Educational Trust from the Education Funding Agency says some parts of the school curriculum are "restricted to a conservative Islamic perspective".
It found that girls and boys had been segregated in some classes.
The trust has strongly disputed allegations of extremism.
'Not welcoming'Park View Educational Trust runs three schools - Park View, Golden Hillock and Nansen - caught up in claims that a group of hardline Muslims have been trying to take over schools in Birmingham.
This draft report, obtained by the BBC's Newsnight, is from the Education Funding Agency which can investigate providers running groups of academies.
This highly-critical report found a classroom culture in which Park View School which was not welcoming to non-Muslim pupils - even though the school is not a Muslim faith school.
It described a "madrassa curriculum" in PHSE (personal, social, health and economic) lessons and "posters written in Quranic Arabic in most of the classrooms visited".
Staff told the inspectors that loudspeakers in the school were used to broadcast the call to prayer.
The report says there were posters in classrooms encouraging children to begin lessons with a Muslim prayer.
And there were claims of an inappropriate external speaker being brought in to talk to pupils.
'Inaccuracies'In RE lessons, the report found that the few pupils taking a Christian unit in the GCSE course, rather than the Islamic Studies paper, had to "teach themselves", because the teacher had to concentrate on what the majority were studying.
But the report says there were no signs of an enforced Islamic dress code.
The report says that the way the schools are run is "inadequate", with the chair of the trust playing an "inappropriate role in the day-to-day running of the school".
The trust has strongly rejected the criticisms and does not accept that there has been gender segregation.
A response from the trust challenges much of the detail of the report, accusing it of "sweeping statements" and inaccuracies - arguing that it makes assumptions based on prejudices about the Trojan Horse claims.
Park View was previously assessed as an outstanding school by Ofsted - a rating which is likely to be overturned when the latest round of inspections are published.
Article written by Sean CoughlanSean CoughlanBBC News education correspondent
[h=1]'Trojan Horse': Birmingham academy trust criticised[/h]
The Birmingham academy trust at the centre of the so-called Trojan Horse allegations has been accused of running schools which have "taken the Islamic focus too far".
A leaked draft report on Park View Educational Trust from the Education Funding Agency says some parts of the school curriculum are "restricted to a conservative Islamic perspective".
It found that girls and boys had been segregated in some classes.
The trust has strongly disputed allegations of extremism.
'Not welcoming'Park View Educational Trust runs three schools - Park View, Golden Hillock and Nansen - caught up in claims that a group of hardline Muslims have been trying to take over schools in Birmingham.
This draft report, obtained by the BBC's Newsnight, is from the Education Funding Agency which can investigate providers running groups of academies.
This highly-critical report found a classroom culture in which Park View School which was not welcoming to non-Muslim pupils - even though the school is not a Muslim faith school.
It described a "madrassa curriculum" in PHSE (personal, social, health and economic) lessons and "posters written in Quranic Arabic in most of the classrooms visited".
Staff told the inspectors that loudspeakers in the school were used to broadcast the call to prayer.
The report says there were posters in classrooms encouraging children to begin lessons with a Muslim prayer.
And there were claims of an inappropriate external speaker being brought in to talk to pupils.
'Inaccuracies'In RE lessons, the report found that the few pupils taking a Christian unit in the GCSE course, rather than the Islamic Studies paper, had to "teach themselves", because the teacher had to concentrate on what the majority were studying.
But the report says there were no signs of an enforced Islamic dress code.
The report says that the way the schools are run is "inadequate", with the chair of the trust playing an "inappropriate role in the day-to-day running of the school".
The trust has strongly rejected the criticisms and does not accept that there has been gender segregation.
A response from the trust challenges much of the detail of the report, accusing it of "sweeping statements" and inaccuracies - arguing that it makes assumptions based on prejudices about the Trojan Horse claims.
Park View was previously assessed as an outstanding school by Ofsted - a rating which is likely to be overturned when the latest round of inspections are published.
Article written by Sean CoughlanSean CoughlanBBC News education correspondent
[ Nice friendly Muslims just having fun... ]
Beheaded in his own bedroom: ISIS jihadists release horrific videos showing a policeman dragged from his bed and decapitated and motorists gunned down in random drive-by shootings
PUBLISHED: 01:34 EST, 13 June 2014 | UPDATED: 09:45 EST, 13 June 2014
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Blood-thirsty jihadists are carrying out summary executions on civilians, Iraqi soldiers and police officers - including 17 in one street alone - on their warpath to Baghdad, the UN said today.
As a shocking picture of the ISIS insurgency continues to develop, the Islamist group are posting barbaric videos online with the intent of showing the world they will stop at nothing to achieve their end game.
In one, which is too graphic to publish, fighters are seen knocking on the door of a Sunni police major in the dead of night.
When he answers, they blindfold and cuff him. Then they carve off his head with a knife in his own bedroom as sweetly lilting religious hymns are played over the top.
In image of the officer's decapitated head was tweeted with the sickening message: 'This is our ball. It is made of skin #WorldCup'.
The aim is to terrorise Sunnis in Iraq's army and police forces and deepen their already low morale.
That fear is one factor behind the stunning collapse of Iraqi security forces. In most cases, police and soldiers simply ran, sometimes shedding their uniforms and abandoned arsenals of heavy weapons.
In another video, also purportedly taken by ISIS militants, gunmen are seen carrying out indiscriminate drive-by shootings on motorists and pedestrians.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS
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Shock and awe: An ISIS propaganda video shows militants blindfolding a Sunni police major in his home before cutting off his head
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Propaganda warfare: The aim of the video is to terrorise Sunnis in Iraq's army and police forces and deepen their already low morale
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Barbaric: This picture of the police officer's decapitated head resting on his legs was tweeted with the message: 'This is our ball. It is made of skin#WorldCup'
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On the terror trail: The police officer was handcuffed at his home in the dead of night after answering the door to the Islamist fighters
Armed with a machine-gun, the gang film themselves shooting cars off the road then move in to video close-ups of the victims' blood-stained bodies slumped in the seats. In another clip, they gun down a pedestrian.
The footage, which cannot be independently verified, contains the same logo used in a video posted earlier this week showing an Iraqi businessman being shot in the back of the head.
The British Foreign Office said it was 'very concerned' with the escalating violence and was 'not going to take its eye off the ball'.
More than 20 British nationals are thought to be trapped in rebel-held areas, although officials say there are no plans as yet to stage evacuations in the north or from Baghdad.
However, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain might offer assistance with counter-terrorism expertise to authorities in Iraq.
Speaking after talks on Iraq with US Secretary of State John Kerry in London, Mr Hague stressed that Britain has no intention of putting military boots on the ground in the country.
But he said that a team from the Department for International Development was now on the ground in northern Iraq to see what humanitarian help the UK can give.
He also made clear that Britain is also ready to advise the Baghdad administration on counter-terrorism efforts.
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Shocking: Footage reportedly taken by ISIS militants shows Islamist fighters randomly shooting pedestrians and motorists as they take over towns and cities in Iraq
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Indiscriminate: A car flies off the road after the driver is shot dead by gunmen in video purportedly posted online by ISIS militants
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Sickening: The gunmen film themselves shooting cars off the road then move in to video close-ups of the victims' blood-stained bodies slumped in the seats
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Brutal: The footage, which cannot be independently verified, contains the same logo used in video posted earlier this week showing a businessman being shot in the head
ISIS militants target random cars and run them off the road
more videos
ISIS fighters are moving ever closer to the capital after capturing two towns in the eastern province of Diyala as security forces abandoned their posts.
Iraqi security forces, who have until now fled the insurgency, are gathering at a base just 20 miles outside Baghdad ready to protect the city as the threat of all-war loomed.
Security sources said the towns of Saadiyah and Jalawla had fallen to the insurgents, as well as several other villages around the Himreen mountains, which have long been a hideout for militants.
U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colvill said hundreds of people killed after Sunni Islamist militants overran the city of Mosul earlier this week may run into the hundreds.
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Marauders: Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant celebrate on American Humvees taken from Iraqi security forces along a street in city of Mosul
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On the warpath to Baghdad: Jubilant ISIS militants stage a parade of American Humvee patrol cars seized from a collapsing Iraqi army as they head to capital
BRITONS ARE JOINING ISIS 'IN THEIR HUNDREDS'
Security services are 'monitoring very closely' concerns that hundreds of British Muslims have signed up with extreme jihadist group ISIS and gone to fight in Iraq.
The Government believes more than 500 British citizens have left the UK to join rebel fighters in Syria, with many of them feared to have crossed the border to join the uprising in Iraq.
The ruthless ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) extremists control large areas of land in Syria and are now turning their attention to Iraq and particularly Baghdad, having already taken the cities of Mosul and Tikrit.
Meanwhile, British security experts are also looking at the possibility that home-grown extremists trained by the ultra-violent group may bring terror back to the UK.
One terror expert told MailOnline today: 'There is a fairly high chance that someone will attempt it.'
More than 500 British Muslims are believed to have already travelled to Syria to fight against President Assad, and it is feared many more will join them.
Many of them are now feared to have crossed the barely-existent border into Iraq with the ultra-violent ISIS militia.
He said four women had killed themselves after being raped, 16 Jordanians had been kidnapped, and prisoners released by the militants had been looking to exact revenge on those responsible for their incarceration.
'We've also had reports suggesting that the government forces have also committed excesses, in particular the shelling of civilian areas on 6 and 8 June,' he said. 'There are claims that up to 30 civilians may have been killed.'
Meanwhile, the UN said Iraq's refugee population has increased by almost 800,000 this year as the government struggles against rebels and Islamic militants, the United Nations says.
The UN's refugee agency said 300,000 people fled this week alone in Irbil and Duhok as Islamic militants seized control of large areas in northern Iraq.
UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said many of the refugees are arriving with little more than the clothes they wear and have no money and nowhere to go.
As they surged towards the capital, one faction from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant staged a jubilant parade of American Humvee patrol cars seized from the collapsing Iraqi army complete with a flypast in captured former U.S. helicopters.
ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani called on his fighters to stay focused on the task ahead, warning them: 'Do not let your egos fall prey to your recent military gains such as Humvees, helicopters, rifles and military equipment.'
In a sign of increasing concern, President Barack Obama abruptly changed course on Iraq last night, saying that he wouldn't 'rule out anything' as he searches for ways to help the ailing Iraqi army push back the terrorist horde.
'We do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold,' Mr Obama said in the Oval Office.
In a video released last night, masked ISIS fighters waved the black flag of the Islamic State and flashed the 'V' sign while some shouted 'towards Baghdad!' as they paraded in stolen Humvees.
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Unrelenting march: Security sources said the towns of Saadiyah and Jalawla had fallen to the insurgents, as well as several other villages around the Himreen mountains
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No resistance: The masked ISIS fighters waved the black flag of the Islamic State and flashed the 'V' sign while some shouted 'towards Baghdad'
SADDAM'S DAUGHTER: 'I'M HAPPY WITH VICTORIES BY MY DAD'S MEN'
Saddam Hussein's oldest daughter says she is 'very happy' with the ISIS insurgency.
Raghad Saddam Hussein,pictured right, praised one of father's former aides, Izzat al Douri, who reportedly joined the Islamist militants in their takeover of Mosul.
He was reportedly linked to a group of former Iraqi army officers.
She said: 'I am very happy with the victories achieved by my father's men'.
Witnesses saw ISIS fly two helicopters over the parade, apparently the first time the militant group has obtained aircraft in years of waging insurgency on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian frontier.
It was unclear who the pilots were, but Sunnis who served in the forces of Saddam Hussein have rallied to the insurgency.
Despite vastly outnumbering the jihadists, government troops have melted away in the face of the insurgents, allowing them to capture two helicopters, 15 tanks, weapons and several armoured cars that used to belong to the American military.
U.S. officials said a $1billion package of military assistance and the sale of 36 F-16s to Iraq was being accelerated, but was unlikely to help in the short term.
This came as top U.S. weapons maker Lockheed Martin said about 25 employees working with the Iraqi air force as it prepared for the arrival of the jets were being evacuated from the Balad area in northern Iraq as a result of the violence.
In Jalawla, Kurdish peshmerga forces deployed more men to secure their political party offices before the insurgents arrived in the town. There were no confrontations between them.
The Iraqi army fired artillery at Saadiya and Jalawla from the nearby town of Muqdadiya, sending dozens of families fleeing towards Khaniqin near the Iranian border, security sources said.
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Drive-by looting: Despite vastly outnumbering the jihadists, government troops have melted away in the face of the insurgents
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Jubilant: ISIS fighters who do not recognise the region's modern frontiers have seized Mosul and Tikrit, Saddam's home town, and other towns north of Baghdad
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Sabre-rattling: An Islamic militant issues a call to arms, saying: 'Declare Allah the Greatest! Allah is the Greatest!' in a video released by ISIS
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On the warpath to Baghdad: A graphic showing the town and cities captured by ISIS over the last few days
Militants from the ISIL staging a parade through Mosul
more videos
According to bitter Iraqi footsoldiers, their commanders slipped away in the night rather than mount a defence of the city.
ISIS overran the northern city of Mosul earlier this week and have since pressed south towards Baghdad in an onslaught against the Shi'ite-led government.
Mr Adnani also dismissed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as woefully incompetent, calling him an 'underwear merchant'.
'What have you done to your people, O foolish one. No-one is more foolish than you but those who accept you as the president and commander,' Adnani mocked him in a translated statement.
The Kurds, who run their own autonomous region in the north, have taken advantage of the chaos to expand their territory, taking control of the oil-rich of Kirkuk and other areas outside the formal boundary of their enclave.
Mr Obama said he was weighing up a range of options, including possible airstrikes, to tackle an insurgency by Islamic militants in Iraq - although officials have ruled out putting American soldiers back on the ground.
Iraq has faced resurgent violence since the US military withdrew in late 2011.
A sharp burst of violence this week led to the evacuation of Americans from a major air base in northern Iraq where the US had been training security forces.
'IRAQ INVASION WAS A COCK-UP WE WILL BE LIVING WITH FOR THE NEXT 50 YEARS', SAYS BRITISH MAJOR-GENERAL
'Strategic error of gargantuan proportions': Major-General Julian Thompson has condemned the invasion of Iraq in 2003
A senior British military figure says the UK's 2003 invasion of Iraq was a 'cock up we will be living with for the next 50 years'.
Major-General Julian Thompson commanded Plymouth based 3 Commando Brigade during the 1982 Falklands War.
He blamed UK politicians for the 'complete mess' in Iraq and fears for the future.
He said: 'Iraq was a strategic error of gargantuan proportions. I was against us going in from the very beginning in 2003.
'I didn't say so at the time with the boys (3 Commando Brigade) going in, but it was wrong.
'It was not the right thing to do. This was not a military cock-up, it was a political cock up. And it is a cock up we will be living with for the next 50 years.
'Saddam Hussein was not a nice guy, but he kept the lid on extremism. He held the balance of power between the Iranians and the Arab World.
'People are far worse off now than they were when he was there. I don't care what Tony Blair says, these people are not better off.
'Blair is guilty of getting us into a position we shouldn't have got into.
'We will not go back in - at least I certainly hope not. We couldn't sort it out the first time, we'd just make it worse if we went back.
'Rather like a disease we need to rope it off do it doesn't affect us. We have to be cold blooded. Our security must come first.
'However sorry we may be for the people of Iraq, there is nothing we can do. We do not want to reinforce failure.'
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Trail of destruction: Militants of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant damage a patrol car of Iraq army in the city of Mosul
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Border force: The US still has a huge military presence in the region despite the withdrawal in 2011, including the fifth US Navy Fleet based off Bahrain and an F-16 airbase in Jordan
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The body an Iraqi policeman is shown in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra
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A member of the Iraqi security forces lies dead beside a vehicle in Tikrit, which was overrun by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Wednesday
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The battle to save Iraq's capital from the advancing Al Qaeda-inspired militants is underway today after the government begged Iraqis to sign up and fight
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Thousands of men of all ages turned up today at an army recruiting center in the city to volunteer for military service in a bid to stop the Baghdad falling to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
GRAVES DESTROYED, NO WOMEN OUTSIDE AND 'UNBELIEVERS' MUST REPENT: ISIS IMPOSES STRICT SHARIA LAW IN CAPTURED TERRITORIES
In the swathe of seized regions across northern Iraq, ISIS has declared hardline Sharia law, publishing the following set of strict rules:
Mr Obama, in his first comments on the deteriorating situation, said it was clear Iraq needed additional assistance from the US and the international community given the lightning gains by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.
'What we've seen over the last couple of days indicates Iraq’s going to need more help' from the United States and other nations, Obama said in the Oval Office.
He added that the U.S. has been working 'around the clock' to find appropriate ways to intervene.
Republican politicians pinned some of the blame for the escalating violence on Mr Obama's reluctance to re-engage in a conflict he long opposed.
For more than a year, the Iraqi government has been pleading with the US for additional help to combat the insurgency, which has been fuelled by the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
Northern Iraq has become a way station for insurgents who routinely travel between the two countries and are spreading the Syrian war's violence.
Iraqi leaders made a fresh request earlier this week, asking for a mix of drones and manned aircraft that could be used for both surveillance and active missions.
Officials said Mr Obama was considering those requests and was expected to decide on a course of action within a few days.
The US is already flying unmanned aircraft over Iraq for intelligence purposes, an official said.
Short of airstrikes, the president could step up the flow of military assistance to the beleaguered Iraqi government, increase training exercises for the country's security forces and help boost Iraq's intelligence capabilities.
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Volunteers who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants, travel in an army truck, in Baghdad
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An Iraqi soldier flashes a V for victory sign (left) while Iraqi men gather outside of the main army recruiting center to volunteer for military service (right)
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A video uploaded on the Iraqi Ministry of Defence website shows Iraqi forces launching air strikes on the al-Ghazlani military camp in the northern city of Mosul said to be occupied by jihadist militants
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The Iraqi air force are now bombing insurgent positions in and around Mosul - although 500,000 residents have fled, 1.3 million citizens remain in the city
The U.S. has been leery of its lethal aid falling into the hands of militants or being otherwise misused.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. is sending about 12 million dollars (£7.15 million) in humanitarian aid to help nearly a million Iraqis who have been forced from their homes by recent fighting.
Mr Obama huddled with his national security team to discuss the deteriorating security situation. US vice president Joe Biden called Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to underscore that while the US stands ready to help, it would be crucial for Iraq to come up with longer-term solutions to its internal political strife.
Nearly all American troops left Iraq in December 2011 after Washington and Baghdad failed to negotiate a security agreement that would have kept a limited number of U.S. forces in the country for a few more years at least.
Senator John McCain, a frequent White House critic, called for Mr Obama's entire national security team to resign. House Speaker John Boehner accused the president of 'taking a nap' while conditions worsened.
Thousands of Iraqi soldiers, men and boys captured by ISIS
more videos
But Congress appears divided over how to respond, with some Republicans backing airstrikes and other figures from both parties suggesting that is the wrong approach.
There were no calls for putting American troops back on the ground in Iraq, and Mr Obama's advisers said the president had no desire to plunge the US back into a conflict there.
'The president is mindful that the United States has sacrificed a lot in Iraq and we need to not just be taking this all back on ourselves,' said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.
'We need to come up with solutions that can enable the Iraqis to manage their internal security and their internal politics.'
The full horror of the jihadists’ savage victories in Iraq emerged yesterday as witnesses told of streets lined with decapitated soldiers and policemen.
U.S. MAY NOT BE GETTING INVOLVED YET BUT THEY'RE STILL PROFITING: MILITARY SELLS 38 F16 JETS TO IRAQ
The U.S. is accelerating its $1billion package of military assistance for Iraq in light of the ISIS insurgency.
This includes the sale of 36 F-16 jet fighters, but they are unlikely to make a difference in the short term.
Lockheed Martin presented the first of 36 F-16 jetfighters it has agreed to sell Baghdad to Iraqi officials in Fort Worth last week.
Three or four of the planes are expected to be flown to Iraq for delivery by the end of the year.
Blood-soaked bodies and blazing vehicles were left in the wake of the Al Qaeda-inspired ISIS fanatics as they pushed the frontline towards Baghdad.
They boasted about their triumphs in a propaganda video depicting appalling scenes including a businessman being dragged from his car and executed at the roadside with a pistol to the back of his head. The extent of the carnage came as:
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Advances: In this unverified footage, broadcast today, armed men appearing to be militants gestures aggressively towards the camera
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Threatening: Men pose with automatic rifles and a stationary machine gun, with the ISIS flag propped up behind them
IRAQ PLUNGES MIDDLE EAST INTO 'MOST DANGEROUS MOMENT' SINCE INVASION IN 2003
Turmoil in Iraq has plunged the Middle East into its 'most dangerous moment' since the invasion of the country in 2003, an expert said.
Professor Peter Neumann, of King's College London, said the recent surge by ISIS threatens to trigger a 'sectarian meltdown' that may spread into other neighbouring states.
Earlier this week, Isis militants took control of Iraq's second city Mosul and Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, raising the prospect that the Sunni group would attempt to march on capital Baghdad to settle scores with the Shi'ite-led government.
Professor Neumann said he expected the jihadist group's popularity among Sunni Iraqis to fade eventually but warned: 'How much damage can they do until that happens?
'I worry that in the meantime what we will see in Iraq is a sectarian meltdown, a huge confrontation between Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds and that could spill into other countries.
'There is a risk that it will be even worse than what we saw about eight or nine years ago in Iraq, which was already pretty horrible.
'This is probably the most dangerous moment in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.'
BBC correspondent Paul Wood said one woman from Mosul, Iraq’s second city, had spoken of seeing a ‘row of decapitated soldiers and policemen’.
The refugee woman told how the victims’ heads were placed in rows – a trademark, trophy-style execution favoured by ISIS militants.
The fanatics captured Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s birthplace, by overrunning an army base and rounding up hundreds of soldiers and police. Dozens of members of a police special forces battalion were paraded on the back of a truck in the city.
As the balaclava-clad militants took Mosul and Tikrit, thousands of Baghdad’s residents young and old queued at recruiting stations to form a ‘Dad’s army’ to defend the capital.
Trucks carrying volunteers in uniform rumbled towards the frontlines to defend the city, with many chanting slogans against the ISIS militants.
Meanwhile the Iraqi air force carried out at least four bombing raids on insurgent positions in and around Mosul. State television showed targets exploding in black clouds.
Britons working in Baghdad’s Green Zone where most of the foreign embassies are based were on high alert. The lightning advance of ISIS has caused alarm in London, Washington and across the Middle East.
Despite vastly outnumbering the jihadists, government troops have melted away in the face of the insurgents, allowing them to capture two helicopters, 15 tanks, weapons and several armoured cars that used belonging to the American military. They also seized £350million-worth of dinars by robbing a bank in Mosul.
According to bitter Iraqi footsoldiers, their commanders slipped away in the night rather than mount a defence of the city.
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An explosion as militants of ISIS allegedly seize an Iraqi army checkpoint in the northern Iraqi province of Salahuddin
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ISIS take position on a Mosul street. Today Iraqi air force bombed insurgent positions in and around the northern city
One said: ‘Our leaders betrayed us. The commanders left the military behind. When we woke up, all the leaders had left.’
Last night Barack Obama said America would help with ‘short-term immediate actions… militarily’ to push back the insurgents, but ruled out sending troops.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain would not get involved militarily because Iraq was now a democracy.
Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed: ‘We are not going to allow this to carry on, regardless of the price. We are getting ready. We are organising.’
As the situation spiralled out of control, even Iran was said to have deployed two battalions from its Revolutionary Guard to help the Iraqi government retake Tikrit.
The development was likely to enrage Washington, which has been steadfast in its determination for Baghdad not to cosy up to Tehran.
But one senior unnamed official said today that Shi'te Muslim Iran is so alarmed by Sunni insurgent gains in Iraq that it may be willing to co-operate with Washington in helping Baghdad fight back.
It also emerged that members of Saddam’s old guard were joining the insurrection. Fighters loyal to his disbanded Baath Party were said to be actively supporting the rebels. ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham but has also been referenced as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
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ISIS fire heavy machine guns during fighting in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra - today the Islamic State has issued a triumphalist statement declaring that it would start implementing its strict version of Shariah law in Mosul and other regions it had overrun
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Dozens of members of a police special forces battalion were paraded before a crowd in the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Thursday after they were captured by fighters who overran their base. Militants have set up military councils to run the towns they captured, residents said
FINALLY THE KURDS GET THEIR JERUSALEM: HOW ISIS INVASION IS REDRAWING THE MAP OF IRAQ
Iraqi Kurds seized control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk today as the central government's army abandoned its posts in a rapid collapse that has lost it control of the north.
Peshmerga fighters (pictured below), the security forces of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish north, swept into Kirkuk after the army abandoned its posts there, a peshmerga spokesman said.
'The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of peshmerga,' said Jabbar Yawar.
'No Iraqi army remains in Kirkuk now.'
Kurds have long dreamed of taking Kirkuk, a city with huge oil reserves just outside their autonomous region, which they regard as their historical capital.
The swift move by their highly organized security forces demonstrates how this week's sudden advance by fighters of the Al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has redrawn Iraq's map.
Kurds have been determined to return to Kirkuk after they were driven from the oil-rich city under Saddam Hussein's 'Arabisation' campaign - the settlement of tens of thousands of Arabs in Kirkuk during his three decades in power
The Iraqi government has control over the oil fields on the city's western fringe.
In May 2013, Kurdish fighters took up positions on the outskirts of Kirkuk after Iraqi security forces were redeployed to deal with Sunni militants elsewhere.
Today they made the final push after the army fled before an Islamist offensive nearby.
Its insurgency is the biggest threat to Iraq since US troops withdrew in 2011.
ISIS commanders issued chilling warnings to any police officers or soldiers to ‘repent or be killed’.
In a sinister video, the extremists urged followers to ‘march to Baghdad – we have a score to settle’. They also pledged to take the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.
‘Continue your march as the battle is not yet raging,’ a voice said to be that of ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani says. ‘It will rage in Baghdad and Karbala. So be ready for it. Put on your belts and get ready.’
But taking Baghdad would be much tougher for ISIS than the towns where they have triumphed so far. The United Nations Security Council met behind closed doors last night to discuss the crisis.
Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, speaking in London, insisted the government had halted the rebel advance and even claimed insurgents were ‘on the run’.
But at Baiji, near Kirkuk, insurgents surrounded Iraq’s largest refinery. And the fighters have reached Samarra, 70 miles north of Baghdad.
About a quarter of Mosul’s two million residents have fled. The flood of terrified families escaping the fighting there was described as ‘one of the largest and swiftest mass movements of people in the world in recent memory’. Many have headed east into the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
Aid groups fear a new refugee crisis. Neighbouring countries already struggling to look after 2.8million refugees from the Syrian civil war now face the prospect of a new influx of displaced people desperately seeking a safe haven.
Meanwhile Iraqi Kurds seized control of the major northern oil city of Kirkuk after the central government's army abandoned its posts.The Kurds - a semi-autonomous ethnic group based in the north - have their own 250,000-strong military, but have not used them to engage ISIS.
Footage emerged yesterday evening from TIkrit, which appears to show a long line of captured men and boys, being forcibly marched down a highway in the city.
The minute-long video, uploaded to YouTube, showed a snaking column of men stretching the entire visible length of the stretch of road. A voice captured by the recording describes a great Islamic 'family' and later an 'army', suggesting a possible intention to recruit the captives.
Most of the men and boys have both hands on their heads, while others - some wearing head coverings and some bare-faced - move up and down the column encouraging the march.
The startling developments raise the spectre of Iraq being carved up and divided into several states. Respected commentators have raised the prospect that, with Kurdish forces holding the north, the Sunni ISIS militants taking parts of the north and west, leaving the central and south-eastern to the Shiite population who currently run the government and military.
The Iraqi Ambassador to Washington warned the ‘integrity of Iraq is in question’, while Dr Ayad Allawi, a former prime minister of Iraq, added that a break-up was ‘not impossible’.
The governor of Mosul, who escaped the city and is now in Erbil in the Kurdish north, said that Iraq must be divided as centralisation had 'failed'.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Atheel al-Nujaifi said prime minister Nouri al-Maliki 'didn't devolve authority to us before, but now we must do it. Now we are saying his centralisation policies have failed,' Mr Nujaifi said.
Repercussions from the conflict are also being felt in global oil markets, where prices shot to a three-month high. The RAC said disruption could add more than 2p to the price of a litre of petrol.
The price of Brent crude rose $2 to a three-month high of more than $112 on fears about supply from the second-biggest producer in the Opec oil cartel.
The RAC said: ‘The worsening situation in Iraq is causing a knee-jerk reaction in the global fuel market with wholesale prices going up one pence over Wednesday and Thursday.’
This was likely to push the pump price of both petrol and diesel up by 2p per litre in the short term, the RAC said, ‘and this could well go much further’.
Iraq has insisted sectarian violence will not spread to the south, from which the vast majority of oil output comes.
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Beheaded in his own bedroom: ISIS jihadists release horrific videos showing a policeman dragged from his bed and decapitated and motorists gunned down in random drive-by shootings
- WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
- Image of officer's decapitated head tweeted with sickening message: 'This is our ball. It is made of skin #WorldCup'
- Battle lines drawn as Iraqi forces gather at base just 20 miles outside Baghdad after militants seize two more towns
- More than 20 UK nationals thought to be trapped in territories where Islamists are carrying out summary executions
- Al Qaeda-inspired militants stage jubilant parade of American Humvee patrol cars seized from collapsing Iraqi army
- Masked fighters wave the black flag of the Islamic State and flash the 'V' sign while shouting 'towards Baghdad!'
- Insurgents have also captured two helicopters, 15 tanks and armoured cars that used to belong to U.S. military
- Iraq's refugee population has increased by almost 800,000 this year as the government struggles against rebels
- President Barack Obama weighs up possible airstrikes - but rules out putting U.S. soldiers back on the ground
- ISIS leader dismissed Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as woefully incompetent, calling him 'underwear merchant'
PUBLISHED: 01:34 EST, 13 June 2014 | UPDATED: 09:45 EST, 13 June 2014
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Blood-thirsty jihadists are carrying out summary executions on civilians, Iraqi soldiers and police officers - including 17 in one street alone - on their warpath to Baghdad, the UN said today.
As a shocking picture of the ISIS insurgency continues to develop, the Islamist group are posting barbaric videos online with the intent of showing the world they will stop at nothing to achieve their end game.
In one, which is too graphic to publish, fighters are seen knocking on the door of a Sunni police major in the dead of night.
When he answers, they blindfold and cuff him. Then they carve off his head with a knife in his own bedroom as sweetly lilting religious hymns are played over the top.
In image of the officer's decapitated head was tweeted with the sickening message: 'This is our ball. It is made of skin #WorldCup'.
The aim is to terrorise Sunnis in Iraq's army and police forces and deepen their already low morale.
That fear is one factor behind the stunning collapse of Iraqi security forces. In most cases, police and soldiers simply ran, sometimes shedding their uniforms and abandoned arsenals of heavy weapons.
In another video, also purportedly taken by ISIS militants, gunmen are seen carrying out indiscriminate drive-by shootings on motorists and pedestrians.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS
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Shock and awe: An ISIS propaganda video shows militants blindfolding a Sunni police major in his home before cutting off his head
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Propaganda warfare: The aim of the video is to terrorise Sunnis in Iraq's army and police forces and deepen their already low morale
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Barbaric: This picture of the police officer's decapitated head resting on his legs was tweeted with the message: 'This is our ball. It is made of skin#WorldCup'
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On the terror trail: The police officer was handcuffed at his home in the dead of night after answering the door to the Islamist fighters
Armed with a machine-gun, the gang film themselves shooting cars off the road then move in to video close-ups of the victims' blood-stained bodies slumped in the seats. In another clip, they gun down a pedestrian.
The footage, which cannot be independently verified, contains the same logo used in a video posted earlier this week showing an Iraqi businessman being shot in the back of the head.
The British Foreign Office said it was 'very concerned' with the escalating violence and was 'not going to take its eye off the ball'.
More than 20 British nationals are thought to be trapped in rebel-held areas, although officials say there are no plans as yet to stage evacuations in the north or from Baghdad.
However, Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain might offer assistance with counter-terrorism expertise to authorities in Iraq.
Speaking after talks on Iraq with US Secretary of State John Kerry in London, Mr Hague stressed that Britain has no intention of putting military boots on the ground in the country.
But he said that a team from the Department for International Development was now on the ground in northern Iraq to see what humanitarian help the UK can give.
He also made clear that Britain is also ready to advise the Baghdad administration on counter-terrorism efforts.
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Shocking: Footage reportedly taken by ISIS militants shows Islamist fighters randomly shooting pedestrians and motorists as they take over towns and cities in Iraq
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Indiscriminate: A car flies off the road after the driver is shot dead by gunmen in video purportedly posted online by ISIS militants
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Sickening: The gunmen film themselves shooting cars off the road then move in to video close-ups of the victims' blood-stained bodies slumped in the seats
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Brutal: The footage, which cannot be independently verified, contains the same logo used in video posted earlier this week showing a businessman being shot in the head
ISIS militants target random cars and run them off the road
more videos
ISIS fighters are moving ever closer to the capital after capturing two towns in the eastern province of Diyala as security forces abandoned their posts.
Iraqi security forces, who have until now fled the insurgency, are gathering at a base just 20 miles outside Baghdad ready to protect the city as the threat of all-war loomed.
Security sources said the towns of Saadiyah and Jalawla had fallen to the insurgents, as well as several other villages around the Himreen mountains, which have long been a hideout for militants.
U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colvill said hundreds of people killed after Sunni Islamist militants overran the city of Mosul earlier this week may run into the hundreds.
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Marauders: Fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant celebrate on American Humvees taken from Iraqi security forces along a street in city of Mosul
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On the warpath to Baghdad: Jubilant ISIS militants stage a parade of American Humvee patrol cars seized from a collapsing Iraqi army as they head to capital
BRITONS ARE JOINING ISIS 'IN THEIR HUNDREDS'
Security services are 'monitoring very closely' concerns that hundreds of British Muslims have signed up with extreme jihadist group ISIS and gone to fight in Iraq.
The Government believes more than 500 British citizens have left the UK to join rebel fighters in Syria, with many of them feared to have crossed the border to join the uprising in Iraq.
The ruthless ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) extremists control large areas of land in Syria and are now turning their attention to Iraq and particularly Baghdad, having already taken the cities of Mosul and Tikrit.
Meanwhile, British security experts are also looking at the possibility that home-grown extremists trained by the ultra-violent group may bring terror back to the UK.
One terror expert told MailOnline today: 'There is a fairly high chance that someone will attempt it.'
More than 500 British Muslims are believed to have already travelled to Syria to fight against President Assad, and it is feared many more will join them.
Many of them are now feared to have crossed the barely-existent border into Iraq with the ultra-violent ISIS militia.
He said four women had killed themselves after being raped, 16 Jordanians had been kidnapped, and prisoners released by the militants had been looking to exact revenge on those responsible for their incarceration.
'We've also had reports suggesting that the government forces have also committed excesses, in particular the shelling of civilian areas on 6 and 8 June,' he said. 'There are claims that up to 30 civilians may have been killed.'
Meanwhile, the UN said Iraq's refugee population has increased by almost 800,000 this year as the government struggles against rebels and Islamic militants, the United Nations says.
The UN's refugee agency said 300,000 people fled this week alone in Irbil and Duhok as Islamic militants seized control of large areas in northern Iraq.
UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said many of the refugees are arriving with little more than the clothes they wear and have no money and nowhere to go.
As they surged towards the capital, one faction from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant staged a jubilant parade of American Humvee patrol cars seized from the collapsing Iraqi army complete with a flypast in captured former U.S. helicopters.
ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani called on his fighters to stay focused on the task ahead, warning them: 'Do not let your egos fall prey to your recent military gains such as Humvees, helicopters, rifles and military equipment.'
In a sign of increasing concern, President Barack Obama abruptly changed course on Iraq last night, saying that he wouldn't 'rule out anything' as he searches for ways to help the ailing Iraqi army push back the terrorist horde.
'We do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold,' Mr Obama said in the Oval Office.
In a video released last night, masked ISIS fighters waved the black flag of the Islamic State and flashed the 'V' sign while some shouted 'towards Baghdad!' as they paraded in stolen Humvees.
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Unrelenting march: Security sources said the towns of Saadiyah and Jalawla had fallen to the insurgents, as well as several other villages around the Himreen mountains
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No resistance: The masked ISIS fighters waved the black flag of the Islamic State and flashed the 'V' sign while some shouted 'towards Baghdad'
SADDAM'S DAUGHTER: 'I'M HAPPY WITH VICTORIES BY MY DAD'S MEN'
Saddam Hussein's oldest daughter says she is 'very happy' with the ISIS insurgency.
Raghad Saddam Hussein,pictured right, praised one of father's former aides, Izzat al Douri, who reportedly joined the Islamist militants in their takeover of Mosul.
He was reportedly linked to a group of former Iraqi army officers.
She said: 'I am very happy with the victories achieved by my father's men'.
Witnesses saw ISIS fly two helicopters over the parade, apparently the first time the militant group has obtained aircraft in years of waging insurgency on both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian frontier.
It was unclear who the pilots were, but Sunnis who served in the forces of Saddam Hussein have rallied to the insurgency.
Despite vastly outnumbering the jihadists, government troops have melted away in the face of the insurgents, allowing them to capture two helicopters, 15 tanks, weapons and several armoured cars that used to belong to the American military.
U.S. officials said a $1billion package of military assistance and the sale of 36 F-16s to Iraq was being accelerated, but was unlikely to help in the short term.
This came as top U.S. weapons maker Lockheed Martin said about 25 employees working with the Iraqi air force as it prepared for the arrival of the jets were being evacuated from the Balad area in northern Iraq as a result of the violence.
In Jalawla, Kurdish peshmerga forces deployed more men to secure their political party offices before the insurgents arrived in the town. There were no confrontations between them.
The Iraqi army fired artillery at Saadiya and Jalawla from the nearby town of Muqdadiya, sending dozens of families fleeing towards Khaniqin near the Iranian border, security sources said.
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Drive-by looting: Despite vastly outnumbering the jihadists, government troops have melted away in the face of the insurgents
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Jubilant: ISIS fighters who do not recognise the region's modern frontiers have seized Mosul and Tikrit, Saddam's home town, and other towns north of Baghdad
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Sabre-rattling: An Islamic militant issues a call to arms, saying: 'Declare Allah the Greatest! Allah is the Greatest!' in a video released by ISIS
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On the warpath to Baghdad: A graphic showing the town and cities captured by ISIS over the last few days
Militants from the ISIL staging a parade through Mosul
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According to bitter Iraqi footsoldiers, their commanders slipped away in the night rather than mount a defence of the city.
ISIS overran the northern city of Mosul earlier this week and have since pressed south towards Baghdad in an onslaught against the Shi'ite-led government.
Mr Adnani also dismissed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as woefully incompetent, calling him an 'underwear merchant'.
'What have you done to your people, O foolish one. No-one is more foolish than you but those who accept you as the president and commander,' Adnani mocked him in a translated statement.
The Kurds, who run their own autonomous region in the north, have taken advantage of the chaos to expand their territory, taking control of the oil-rich of Kirkuk and other areas outside the formal boundary of their enclave.
Mr Obama said he was weighing up a range of options, including possible airstrikes, to tackle an insurgency by Islamic militants in Iraq - although officials have ruled out putting American soldiers back on the ground.
Iraq has faced resurgent violence since the US military withdrew in late 2011.
A sharp burst of violence this week led to the evacuation of Americans from a major air base in northern Iraq where the US had been training security forces.
'IRAQ INVASION WAS A COCK-UP WE WILL BE LIVING WITH FOR THE NEXT 50 YEARS', SAYS BRITISH MAJOR-GENERAL
'Strategic error of gargantuan proportions': Major-General Julian Thompson has condemned the invasion of Iraq in 2003
A senior British military figure says the UK's 2003 invasion of Iraq was a 'cock up we will be living with for the next 50 years'.
Major-General Julian Thompson commanded Plymouth based 3 Commando Brigade during the 1982 Falklands War.
He blamed UK politicians for the 'complete mess' in Iraq and fears for the future.
He said: 'Iraq was a strategic error of gargantuan proportions. I was against us going in from the very beginning in 2003.
'I didn't say so at the time with the boys (3 Commando Brigade) going in, but it was wrong.
'It was not the right thing to do. This was not a military cock-up, it was a political cock up. And it is a cock up we will be living with for the next 50 years.
'Saddam Hussein was not a nice guy, but he kept the lid on extremism. He held the balance of power between the Iranians and the Arab World.
'People are far worse off now than they were when he was there. I don't care what Tony Blair says, these people are not better off.
'Blair is guilty of getting us into a position we shouldn't have got into.
'We will not go back in - at least I certainly hope not. We couldn't sort it out the first time, we'd just make it worse if we went back.
'Rather like a disease we need to rope it off do it doesn't affect us. We have to be cold blooded. Our security must come first.
'However sorry we may be for the people of Iraq, there is nothing we can do. We do not want to reinforce failure.'
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Trail of destruction: Militants of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant damage a patrol car of Iraq army in the city of Mosul
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Border force: The US still has a huge military presence in the region despite the withdrawal in 2011, including the fifth US Navy Fleet based off Bahrain and an F-16 airbase in Jordan
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The body an Iraqi policeman is shown in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra
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A member of the Iraqi security forces lies dead beside a vehicle in Tikrit, which was overrun by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) on Wednesday
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The battle to save Iraq's capital from the advancing Al Qaeda-inspired militants is underway today after the government begged Iraqis to sign up and fight
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Thousands of men of all ages turned up today at an army recruiting center in the city to volunteer for military service in a bid to stop the Baghdad falling to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
GRAVES DESTROYED, NO WOMEN OUTSIDE AND 'UNBELIEVERS' MUST REPENT: ISIS IMPOSES STRICT SHARIA LAW IN CAPTURED TERRITORIES
In the swathe of seized regions across northern Iraq, ISIS has declared hardline Sharia law, publishing the following set of strict rules:
- People have tried secular rule - now it is time for an Islamic state
- Women should wear loose-fitting clothes and leave home only when necessary
- Shrines and graves should be destroyed
- Only flag allowed to be carried is the ISIS one
- Places have been opened for police and soldiers of the 'unbelievers' to repent
- Drugs, cigarettes or alcohol banned
- Tribal leaders must not become traitors by working with the government
- All Muslims to pray at the mosque at the correct time
- Money we have stolen from the government is for the public. Only the imam of mosques can spend it - thieves will have their hands cut off
- We are the soldiers of Islam and we have taken on the responsibility of re-establishing the caliphate
Mr Obama, in his first comments on the deteriorating situation, said it was clear Iraq needed additional assistance from the US and the international community given the lightning gains by the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant.
'What we've seen over the last couple of days indicates Iraq’s going to need more help' from the United States and other nations, Obama said in the Oval Office.
He added that the U.S. has been working 'around the clock' to find appropriate ways to intervene.
Republican politicians pinned some of the blame for the escalating violence on Mr Obama's reluctance to re-engage in a conflict he long opposed.
For more than a year, the Iraqi government has been pleading with the US for additional help to combat the insurgency, which has been fuelled by the civil war in neighbouring Syria.
Northern Iraq has become a way station for insurgents who routinely travel between the two countries and are spreading the Syrian war's violence.
Iraqi leaders made a fresh request earlier this week, asking for a mix of drones and manned aircraft that could be used for both surveillance and active missions.
Officials said Mr Obama was considering those requests and was expected to decide on a course of action within a few days.
The US is already flying unmanned aircraft over Iraq for intelligence purposes, an official said.
Short of airstrikes, the president could step up the flow of military assistance to the beleaguered Iraqi government, increase training exercises for the country's security forces and help boost Iraq's intelligence capabilities.
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Volunteers who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants, travel in an army truck, in Baghdad
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An Iraqi soldier flashes a V for victory sign (left) while Iraqi men gather outside of the main army recruiting center to volunteer for military service (right)
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A video uploaded on the Iraqi Ministry of Defence website shows Iraqi forces launching air strikes on the al-Ghazlani military camp in the northern city of Mosul said to be occupied by jihadist militants
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The Iraqi air force are now bombing insurgent positions in and around Mosul - although 500,000 residents have fled, 1.3 million citizens remain in the city
The U.S. has been leery of its lethal aid falling into the hands of militants or being otherwise misused.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. is sending about 12 million dollars (£7.15 million) in humanitarian aid to help nearly a million Iraqis who have been forced from their homes by recent fighting.
Mr Obama huddled with his national security team to discuss the deteriorating security situation. US vice president Joe Biden called Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to underscore that while the US stands ready to help, it would be crucial for Iraq to come up with longer-term solutions to its internal political strife.
Nearly all American troops left Iraq in December 2011 after Washington and Baghdad failed to negotiate a security agreement that would have kept a limited number of U.S. forces in the country for a few more years at least.
Senator John McCain, a frequent White House critic, called for Mr Obama's entire national security team to resign. House Speaker John Boehner accused the president of 'taking a nap' while conditions worsened.
Thousands of Iraqi soldiers, men and boys captured by ISIS
more videos
But Congress appears divided over how to respond, with some Republicans backing airstrikes and other figures from both parties suggesting that is the wrong approach.
There were no calls for putting American troops back on the ground in Iraq, and Mr Obama's advisers said the president had no desire to plunge the US back into a conflict there.
'The president is mindful that the United States has sacrificed a lot in Iraq and we need to not just be taking this all back on ourselves,' said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser.
'We need to come up with solutions that can enable the Iraqis to manage their internal security and their internal politics.'
The full horror of the jihadists’ savage victories in Iraq emerged yesterday as witnesses told of streets lined with decapitated soldiers and policemen.
U.S. MAY NOT BE GETTING INVOLVED YET BUT THEY'RE STILL PROFITING: MILITARY SELLS 38 F16 JETS TO IRAQ
The U.S. is accelerating its $1billion package of military assistance for Iraq in light of the ISIS insurgency.
This includes the sale of 36 F-16 jet fighters, but they are unlikely to make a difference in the short term.
Lockheed Martin presented the first of 36 F-16 jetfighters it has agreed to sell Baghdad to Iraqi officials in Fort Worth last week.
Three or four of the planes are expected to be flown to Iraq for delivery by the end of the year.
Blood-soaked bodies and blazing vehicles were left in the wake of the Al Qaeda-inspired ISIS fanatics as they pushed the frontline towards Baghdad.
They boasted about their triumphs in a propaganda video depicting appalling scenes including a businessman being dragged from his car and executed at the roadside with a pistol to the back of his head. The extent of the carnage came as:
- Images from captured cities such as Mosul and Tikrit showed deserted streets, burnt out vehicles and discarded uniforms left by government troops fleeing the brutal fanatics;
- ISIS leaders urged their bloodthirsty followers to continue their march and warned that battle would rage in Baghdad and in the holy city of Karbala;
- Thousands of residents in the capital answered a call to arms to repel the invaders amid fears the government’s own troops were not up to the job;
- Aid groups warned of a new refugee crisis after half a million terrified Iraqis left their homes to escape the jihadists.
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Advances: In this unverified footage, broadcast today, armed men appearing to be militants gestures aggressively towards the camera
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Threatening: Men pose with automatic rifles and a stationary machine gun, with the ISIS flag propped up behind them
IRAQ PLUNGES MIDDLE EAST INTO 'MOST DANGEROUS MOMENT' SINCE INVASION IN 2003
Turmoil in Iraq has plunged the Middle East into its 'most dangerous moment' since the invasion of the country in 2003, an expert said.
Professor Peter Neumann, of King's College London, said the recent surge by ISIS threatens to trigger a 'sectarian meltdown' that may spread into other neighbouring states.
Earlier this week, Isis militants took control of Iraq's second city Mosul and Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, raising the prospect that the Sunni group would attempt to march on capital Baghdad to settle scores with the Shi'ite-led government.
Professor Neumann said he expected the jihadist group's popularity among Sunni Iraqis to fade eventually but warned: 'How much damage can they do until that happens?
'I worry that in the meantime what we will see in Iraq is a sectarian meltdown, a huge confrontation between Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds and that could spill into other countries.
'There is a risk that it will be even worse than what we saw about eight or nine years ago in Iraq, which was already pretty horrible.
'This is probably the most dangerous moment in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.'
BBC correspondent Paul Wood said one woman from Mosul, Iraq’s second city, had spoken of seeing a ‘row of decapitated soldiers and policemen’.
The refugee woman told how the victims’ heads were placed in rows – a trademark, trophy-style execution favoured by ISIS militants.
The fanatics captured Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s birthplace, by overrunning an army base and rounding up hundreds of soldiers and police. Dozens of members of a police special forces battalion were paraded on the back of a truck in the city.
As the balaclava-clad militants took Mosul and Tikrit, thousands of Baghdad’s residents young and old queued at recruiting stations to form a ‘Dad’s army’ to defend the capital.
Trucks carrying volunteers in uniform rumbled towards the frontlines to defend the city, with many chanting slogans against the ISIS militants.
Meanwhile the Iraqi air force carried out at least four bombing raids on insurgent positions in and around Mosul. State television showed targets exploding in black clouds.
Britons working in Baghdad’s Green Zone where most of the foreign embassies are based were on high alert. The lightning advance of ISIS has caused alarm in London, Washington and across the Middle East.
Despite vastly outnumbering the jihadists, government troops have melted away in the face of the insurgents, allowing them to capture two helicopters, 15 tanks, weapons and several armoured cars that used belonging to the American military. They also seized £350million-worth of dinars by robbing a bank in Mosul.
According to bitter Iraqi footsoldiers, their commanders slipped away in the night rather than mount a defence of the city.
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An explosion as militants of ISIS allegedly seize an Iraqi army checkpoint in the northern Iraqi province of Salahuddin
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ISIS take position on a Mosul street. Today Iraqi air force bombed insurgent positions in and around the northern city
One said: ‘Our leaders betrayed us. The commanders left the military behind. When we woke up, all the leaders had left.’
Last night Barack Obama said America would help with ‘short-term immediate actions… militarily’ to push back the insurgents, but ruled out sending troops.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain would not get involved militarily because Iraq was now a democracy.
Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed: ‘We are not going to allow this to carry on, regardless of the price. We are getting ready. We are organising.’
As the situation spiralled out of control, even Iran was said to have deployed two battalions from its Revolutionary Guard to help the Iraqi government retake Tikrit.
The development was likely to enrage Washington, which has been steadfast in its determination for Baghdad not to cosy up to Tehran.
But one senior unnamed official said today that Shi'te Muslim Iran is so alarmed by Sunni insurgent gains in Iraq that it may be willing to co-operate with Washington in helping Baghdad fight back.
It also emerged that members of Saddam’s old guard were joining the insurrection. Fighters loyal to his disbanded Baath Party were said to be actively supporting the rebels. ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham but has also been referenced as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
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ISIS fire heavy machine guns during fighting in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra - today the Islamic State has issued a triumphalist statement declaring that it would start implementing its strict version of Shariah law in Mosul and other regions it had overrun
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Dozens of members of a police special forces battalion were paraded before a crowd in the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Thursday after they were captured by fighters who overran their base. Militants have set up military councils to run the towns they captured, residents said
FINALLY THE KURDS GET THEIR JERUSALEM: HOW ISIS INVASION IS REDRAWING THE MAP OF IRAQ
Iraqi Kurds seized control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk today as the central government's army abandoned its posts in a rapid collapse that has lost it control of the north.
Peshmerga fighters (pictured below), the security forces of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish north, swept into Kirkuk after the army abandoned its posts there, a peshmerga spokesman said.
'The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of peshmerga,' said Jabbar Yawar.
'No Iraqi army remains in Kirkuk now.'
Kurds have long dreamed of taking Kirkuk, a city with huge oil reserves just outside their autonomous region, which they regard as their historical capital.
The swift move by their highly organized security forces demonstrates how this week's sudden advance by fighters of the Al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has redrawn Iraq's map.
Kurds have been determined to return to Kirkuk after they were driven from the oil-rich city under Saddam Hussein's 'Arabisation' campaign - the settlement of tens of thousands of Arabs in Kirkuk during his three decades in power
The Iraqi government has control over the oil fields on the city's western fringe.
In May 2013, Kurdish fighters took up positions on the outskirts of Kirkuk after Iraqi security forces were redeployed to deal with Sunni militants elsewhere.
Today they made the final push after the army fled before an Islamist offensive nearby.
Its insurgency is the biggest threat to Iraq since US troops withdrew in 2011.
ISIS commanders issued chilling warnings to any police officers or soldiers to ‘repent or be killed’.
In a sinister video, the extremists urged followers to ‘march to Baghdad – we have a score to settle’. They also pledged to take the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.
‘Continue your march as the battle is not yet raging,’ a voice said to be that of ISIS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani says. ‘It will rage in Baghdad and Karbala. So be ready for it. Put on your belts and get ready.’
But taking Baghdad would be much tougher for ISIS than the towns where they have triumphed so far. The United Nations Security Council met behind closed doors last night to discuss the crisis.
Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, speaking in London, insisted the government had halted the rebel advance and even claimed insurgents were ‘on the run’.
But at Baiji, near Kirkuk, insurgents surrounded Iraq’s largest refinery. And the fighters have reached Samarra, 70 miles north of Baghdad.
About a quarter of Mosul’s two million residents have fled. The flood of terrified families escaping the fighting there was described as ‘one of the largest and swiftest mass movements of people in the world in recent memory’. Many have headed east into the autonomous region of Kurdistan.
Aid groups fear a new refugee crisis. Neighbouring countries already struggling to look after 2.8million refugees from the Syrian civil war now face the prospect of a new influx of displaced people desperately seeking a safe haven.
Meanwhile Iraqi Kurds seized control of the major northern oil city of Kirkuk after the central government's army abandoned its posts.The Kurds - a semi-autonomous ethnic group based in the north - have their own 250,000-strong military, but have not used them to engage ISIS.
Footage emerged yesterday evening from TIkrit, which appears to show a long line of captured men and boys, being forcibly marched down a highway in the city.
The minute-long video, uploaded to YouTube, showed a snaking column of men stretching the entire visible length of the stretch of road. A voice captured by the recording describes a great Islamic 'family' and later an 'army', suggesting a possible intention to recruit the captives.
Most of the men and boys have both hands on their heads, while others - some wearing head coverings and some bare-faced - move up and down the column encouraging the march.
The startling developments raise the spectre of Iraq being carved up and divided into several states. Respected commentators have raised the prospect that, with Kurdish forces holding the north, the Sunni ISIS militants taking parts of the north and west, leaving the central and south-eastern to the Shiite population who currently run the government and military.
The Iraqi Ambassador to Washington warned the ‘integrity of Iraq is in question’, while Dr Ayad Allawi, a former prime minister of Iraq, added that a break-up was ‘not impossible’.
The governor of Mosul, who escaped the city and is now in Erbil in the Kurdish north, said that Iraq must be divided as centralisation had 'failed'.
Speaking to the Telegraph, Atheel al-Nujaifi said prime minister Nouri al-Maliki 'didn't devolve authority to us before, but now we must do it. Now we are saying his centralisation policies have failed,' Mr Nujaifi said.
Repercussions from the conflict are also being felt in global oil markets, where prices shot to a three-month high. The RAC said disruption could add more than 2p to the price of a litre of petrol.
The price of Brent crude rose $2 to a three-month high of more than $112 on fears about supply from the second-biggest producer in the Opec oil cartel.
The RAC said: ‘The worsening situation in Iraq is causing a knee-jerk reaction in the global fuel market with wholesale prices going up one pence over Wednesday and Thursday.’
This was likely to push the pump price of both petrol and diesel up by 2p per litre in the short term, the RAC said, ‘and this could well go much further’.
Iraq has insisted sectarian violence will not spread to the south, from which the vast majority of oil output comes.
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Taking no prisoners: In this video, ISIS fighters are seen knocking on the door of a Sunni police major in the dead of night before blindfolding and handcuffing him
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Crazed: Jihadists are carrying out summary executions on civilians, soldiers and police officers including this police major after taking control of large swathes of Iraq
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Grim: As the images emerged on Twitter, ISIS also claimed to have executed 1,700 Shia soldiers on their push for the capital
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Shock and awe: An ISIS propaganda video shows militants blindfolding a Sunni police major in his home before cutting off his head
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Propaganda warfare: The aim of the video is to terrorise Sunnis in Iraq's army and police forces and deepen their already low morale
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Barbaric: This picture (right) of the police officer's decapitated head resting on his legs was tweeted with the message: 'This is our ball. It is made of skin#WorldCup'
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[h=3]Herat, Afghanistan[/h]
An Afghan woman casts her vote at a polling station during the presidential election run-off after none of the eight candidates in the first round garnered the more than 50% required to win outright. Photograph: Jalil Rezayee/EPA
