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Jihadists on Tuesday seized control of the Iraqi city of Mosul, and the surrounding province of Nineveh. The move is a major blow for the government as it questions its competence while combating militant forces. The pre-dominantly Sunni Muslim province of Nineveh has for a long time been a militant bastion, and one the Iraq’s most dangerous province.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would later respond by asking the parliament to declare a state of emergency. He also announced that the government would arm all Iraqi citizens to help combat the militants. According to Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, “All of Nineveh province fell into the hands of militants”. He also told journalists in Baghdad that militants were heading towards the neighboring province of Salaheddin to the south.
According to sources, several hundred militants belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) late on Monday had launched a large-scale assault on security forces in Mosul. The clashes in Mosul since Friday were reportedly out of government control; militants stripped policemen and soldiers off their uniforms. A large number of families fled the city, either by foot carrying their belongings, or in cars, with luggage piled up on roofs. Residents reportedly fled north to the autonomous Kurdish region.
The assailants reportedly took over the provincialgovernment headquarters, the Nineveh Operations Command and the airport. They also reportedly freed prisoners from three jails in the province.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said that the Iraqi cabinet had decided to arm its citizens to combat the militants. It has “created a special crisis cell to follow up on the process of volunteering and equipping and arming”, he said in a televised address. He added that the cabinet had also decided to reorganize the country’s security personnel. According to state television, the Parliament received a joint request from the president’s office and Maliki to declare a state of emergency, following procedure written in the Iraqi constitution.