June 10, 2014

Hundreds of armed men attacked Mosul, one of Iraq’s largest cities, this morning and seized control of the airport and army headquarters as well as local government offices and police stations. Hundreds of detainees are reported to have been set free, and many police stations torched. In Baghdad, the capital, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acknowledged that “vital areas” of the city are effectively under the control of Islamist militants and asked parliament to declare a state of emergency. “What happened [in Mosul] is a disaster by any standard,” declared Osama al-Nujaifi, speaker of the Iraqi parliament. “The presence of these terrorist groups in this vast province . . . threatens not just the security and the unity of Iraq, but the whole Middle East.”

According to the BBC correspondent in Beirut, militants with the Sunni jihadist organization Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have been informally controlling much of Ninawa province, of which Mosul is the capital, for months and are actively fighting across the border in the Syrian civil war. Experts on the scene believe ISIS is attempting to grab control of eastern Syria and western Iraq, apparently aiming to establish an Islamic state straddling the border.

Islamic militants are now in control of Mosul and Ninawa province in northern Iraq as well as parts of Al Anbar province in western Iraq. (World Book map)

In the past week, ISIS militants have killed scores of people in a series of major attacks on cities and towns in central, western, and northern Iraq. On June 7, more than 50 people died in a series of bombings in Shi`ite neighborhoods in Baghdad. That same day, militants stormed a university in Al Anbar province and took dozens of students hostage. ISIS has controlled parts of Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, and much of the nearby city of Fallujah since late December.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)