Sunni extremists in Iraq seized two border crossings on the borders with Jordan and Syria today as Iraqi government forces withdrew, Iraqi army officials said today.
The seizure of those crossings came after ISIL extremists captured the towns of Qaim, Rawah, Anah and Rutba in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, where the group has held the city of Fallujah and parts of Ramada since January.
Officials said Sunni extremists had seized another town in the western Iraqi province, the fourth in two days.
Sunni extremists yesterday seized Qaim, a strategically important town on the border with Syria, where ISIL rebels also have a stronghold.
It is feared that the extremists could launch an offensive on Baghdad from the direction of Syria, because all four occupied cities are along that road.
Extremists killed 21 people
Iraqi extremists killed 21 people in clashes that lasted for the last two days in the cities of Rawa and Ana in the west of the country, police sources said.
Some of the victims were killed yesterday, when the extremists entered these cities, while the rest died today.
The killings took place after the security forces abandoned Rava and Anna, paving the way for the rebels to take them.
According to witnesses, on Saturday evening, the rebels entered Rawa and Ana in Anbar province, as well as, a little earlier, in Al Qaim, a city near the Syrian border.
The army withdrew from three cities in the west of the country
The Iraqi army made a "tactical withdrawal" from three western cities as ISIL fighters expanded an armed offensive in which a large part of Iraq's territory was captured, the spokesman for the security service, Lieutenant General Kasem Ata, said today.
"The withdrawal of military units from the cities of Al Qaim, Rawa and Ana was for the purpose of regrouping," said Ata, explaining the "tactical move of the Iraqi army", AFP reported.
The latest attacks were seen as a decision by the security forces to "tactically withdraw" in the face of an attack by extremists who have deployed hundreds of thousands of their fighters and (thus) alarmed the international community that Iraq might collapse.
However, eyewitnesses say that the extremists entered the towns of Rawa and Ana in Anbar province last night, as happened to the town of Al Qaim earlier today, in order to allow a strategic road to be opened to neighboring Syria, where they also control parts of the country - some villages along the river valley. Euphrates.
Extremists led by members of ISIL and numerous other groups such as loyalists of the ousted and assassinated Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have seized most of Anbar province and parts of three other provinces north of Baghdad.
Iraqi security forces had reduced the strength of the initial attack by Baghdad and in many cases abandoned vehicles, equipment and even their uniforms, but they appear to have recovered in the past few days and have had success against the extremists, although Sunni extremists (jihadists) have made territorial advances in other areas of the country.
The crisis in Iraq has alarmed the entire international community and the United Nations, which has warned that the offensive by extremists is "dangerous to the (survival) of Iraq".
Rouhani warned Muslim countries not to finance ISIL
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned that Muslim countries, which provide financial support to jihadists in Iraq, will become their next target.
Rouhani did not name any countries, but officials and media in Shiite-majority Iran say Saudi Arabia and Qatar are financially and militarily supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) insurgents.
"I advise Muslim countries that financially support terrorists to stop doing so," Rouhani said, as reported on the state television website, AFP reported.
"Tomorrow you will be the target of those savage terrorists," Rouhani added.
Riyadh has warned that Iran's ally, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is leading Iraq toward civil war with a policy of excluding the Sunni minority.
Iran says it will support Maliki in the fight against ISIL members, who are also fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, another Tehran ally.
Rouhani called for the unity of "Shiites and Sunnis who are brothers".
"Shiites and Sunnis have lived side by side for centuries in Iran, Iraq, the Levant, Lebanon, the Persian Gulf and North Africa in peaceful coexistence," Rouhani said.
As ISIL began its offensive in Iraq, Tehran asked Iraqis to unite against the jihadists.
"Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds are our friends," said Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani.
"We have always insisted that all ethnic groups must actively and constructively participate in government structures," Larijani said on the Majlis website.
Kerry: Washington is not responsible for events in Iraq
US Secretary of State John Kerry said today that the US wants the Iraqi people to have a leadership that is ready to represent all Iraqis and that Washington will not appoint the country's leaders.
He added that the US is not responsible for what happened in Libya, nor for what is happening in Iraq today.
Kerry spoke in Cairo at the start of a Middle East tour, during which he will visit Iraq.
Arab countries should resist funding Sunni fighters in what is turning into a cross-border war between Iraq and Syria because it could lead to a rapid spread of the insurgency across Iraq, Kerry said today. Kerry said that ISIL has become a threat to the entire Middle East and possibly beyond.
"This is a critical moment. ISIL is a threat not only to Iraq, but to the entire region," Kerry said.
The AP agency states that the US is looking for ways to cooperate with Middle Eastern countries, most of which are led by Sunni governments, to prevent the further strengthening of Sunni extremists.
Some officials in the US and the Middle East believe that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki should resign in order to make Iraqi Sunnis believe that the Shiite government in Baghdad will even consider their demands.
Al-Maliki, however, has shown no signs that he is ready to step down, and his political party won the majority of votes in national elections in April.
Ayatollah against any intervention
Iran's supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei strongly opposed the intervention of the US or anyone else in Iraq today, stressing that Iraqis should end the violence themselves, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported, as reported by Reuters.
"The main dispute in Iraq is between those who want Iraq to join the US and those who want an independent Iraq. The US wants to bring its blind followers to power," Khamenei said.
Obama: The US will work on a strategy to fight against militant groups
Militants inspired by the Al Qaeda terrorist network, who have forcibly occupied territories in Iraq, are on their way to becoming even more powerful and destabilizing the countries of the region, US President Barack Obama warned.
He added that the Iraqi public will eventually reject ISIL, but that this group poses a certain threat to the US.
"We will generally be on the lookout. The problem with this group is that it destabilizes the entire country, and this can spread to allied countries such as Jordan," Obama said.
He said that groups such as Boko Haram in North Africa and sub-groups of Al Qaeda in Yemen also pose a threat to the US.
Obama emphasized that Washington cannot send troops wherever these groups appear, but will work on a clearer and more precise strategy to fight against them.
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