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Nouri al-Maliki

The Iraqi prime minister has called for a national state of emergency after the city of Mosul and the northern province of Nineveh fell to al-Qaeda-inspired fighters.
Nouri al-Maliki said yesterday that he would ask parliament to declare the emergency after the overnight takeover by 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 civilians who volunteered to “to defend the homeland and defeat terrorism”.
Iraqi army and police abandoned their posts in Mosul when the attack began, action described by Osama al-Nujaifi, the parliament speaker, as “a dereliction of duty”.

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.
“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.

Mosul is Iraq’s second largest city, and the second city to be captured by fighters this year after Fallujah.
Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from Baghdad, said the call for a state of emergency, which would grant the prime minister sweeping powers, would not be easy.

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.

“For ISIL the attack on Mosul is a huge propaganda victory. Some here also worry that a state of emergency will give Maliki sweeping powers that once he has, he may well find difficult to give up.” — Al Jazeera