Fighters from an al-Qaeda splinter group seized control of the northern Iraqi city of Mosul yesterday in an escalation of violence in an oil-rich province that threatens to tip the country back into sectarian war.
The prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, asked parliament to declare a state of emergency after Sunni militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis), which operates in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, overran military bases, police stations and the airport, forcing security personnel to abandon their posts.
The seizure of Mosul, the capital of the province of Nineveh, raises the stakes in a growing sectarian conflict that spans Iraq and Syria, and has been exacerbated by the perceived marginalisation of the Sunni minority under the Shia-led Baghdad government.