Shocking Footage of ISIS Militants As they March Onto Baghdad ISIS militants march on Iraq capital executing anyone who gets in the way 'Put on your belts and get ready, the battle will rage in Baghdad': ISIS militants march on Iraq capital with a trademark bullet in the head for anyone who gets in the way after they take control of north Al Qaeda-inspired militants issued an ultra-violent call to arms today as they continue their unrelenting drive towards the capital Baghdad. 'Continue your march as the battle is not yet raging,' a voice said to be that of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani says on the message posted this morning on the group's media website. 'It will rage in Baghdad and Karbala. So be ready for it. Put on your belts and get ready,' he added. So far government forces have stalled the militants' remarkably rapid advance near Samarra, a city just 110km (68 miles) north of Baghdad. But the group, which has has seized Iraq's second biggest city Mosul on Tuesday and yesterday took over Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, is today pushing ahead with its aim to overthrow the western-backed Shia-led government as part of its goal to create an Islamic emirate spanning both sides of the Iraq-Syria border. As George Bush senior celebrates his 90th birthday today, and the US marks nearly 3.5 years since it withdrew troops from a war instigated by his son George W. Bush, it is today considering a request from Iraq to assist with airstrikes. The White House signaled that it was looking to strengthen Iraqi forces to help them deal with an insurgency while an Obama administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Iraq had previously made clear its interest in drone strikes or bombing by manned U.S. aircraft to help it beat back the militant onslaught. Former British PM Tony Blair, who with George W Bush oversaw the 2001 invasion of Iraq and who now operates as Middle East Peace Envoy, has yet to comment on the deterioration of the country as it teeters on collapse. On the eve of war he famously told the British people: 'Our commitment to the post-Saddam humanitarian effort will be total. 'We shall help Iraq move towards democracy and put the money from Iraqi oil in a UN trust fund so it benefits Iraq and no-one else.' Iran has sent special forces and a unit of elite troops to Iraq to bolster efforts to halt the advance. Tehran's equivalent of the SAS were deployed - the fall of Mosul means the militants are now less than 400km (248 miles) from the borders of Iran. Kurdish forces are in full control of Iraq's oil-rich city of Kirkuk after the federal army abandoned its bases there, a Kurdish military spokesman said today. Today Iraqi Kurds seized control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk. Peshmerga fighters, 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 organised security forces demonstrates how this week's sudden advance by ISIS fighters has redrawn Iraq's map. Yesterday the militants seized control 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 capture of Mosul - along with the fall of Tikrit and the militants' earlier seizure of the city of Fallujah and parts of Ramadi, the capital of western Anbar province - have undone hard-fought gains against insurgents in the years following the 2003 invasion by U.S.-led forces. An Obama administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Iraq had previously made clear its interest in drone strikes or bombing by manned U.S. aircraft to help it beat back the militant onslaught. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that ISIS poses a 'different kind of threat' to American interests than core al-Qaeda, which had repeatedly and publicly vowed to attack U.S. soil. Still, he said the U.S. was watching the threat from ISIS 'very carefully' because the group has proven itself to be violent and willing to consider attacking U.S. interests and American allies.

• published: 12 Jun 2014
• views: 1868