Iraq PM calls emergency after Mosul seized
“Nouri al-Maliki says he will arm civilians after al-Qaeda inspired fighters take over second-largest city in Nineveh.”
The Iraqi prime minister has called for a national state of emergency after the city of Mosul and parts of the northern province of Nineveh fell to al-Qaeda-inspired fighters.
Nouri al-Maliki said on Tuesday that he would ask parliament to declare the emergency after the overnight takeoverby groups including the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.
He said: “We will not allow Mosul to be under the banner of terrorism, We call on all international organisations to support Iraq and its stance in fighting terrorism. The entire world will suffer if terrorism spreads.”
He stated that the government would arm and equip civilians who volunteered “to defend the homeland and defeat terrorism”.
Osama al-Nujaifi, the parliament speaker, said Iraqi soldiers abandoned their posts in Mosul when the attack began, action he described as “a dereliction of duty”.
Nujaifi said parliament would discuss the call for a state of emergency on Thursday.
‘Foreign invasion’
Nujaifi, who is the brother of Atheel al-Nujaifi, the state governor, said he had asked the US ambassador in Baghdad for help in order to stop what he described as “a foreign invasion by ISIL”.
A pro-ISIL Twitter feed said the group had released about 3,000 people from three prisons, although other estimates were lower.
Mosul is Iraq’s second largest city, and the second city to be captured by fighters this year after Fallujah.
“The city of Mosul is outside the control of the state and at the mercy of the militants,” an official at Iraq’s interior ministry told the AFP news agency.
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Baghdad, said Maliki faced opposition to his call for a state of emergency, which would grant him sweeping powers.
Khan said: “Many politicians have vocally criticised Maliki’s handling of the crisis. Many in Iraq are asking why a lightly armed group like ISIL have been able to take over huge cities.
“Some here worry that a state of emergency will give Maliki sweeping powers that once he has, he may well find difficult to give up.”
