Radical Islamists on the move
While sectarian strife is largely to blame, there's no doubt that radical Islamists increasingly flexed their muscles and expanded their reach in recent months.
Formost among them is ISIS, which has wrested control of Iraqi cities like Falluja and parts of Ramadi as well as of Syrian towns just over the border. It has done so by exploiting the weakness of Iraq's central Shiite-dominated government, says CNN's Nic Robertson, as it has done in Mosul. Hon non bo
"It is considered too radical even for al Qaeda and, in the past months, has withstood and emerged from a jihadist backlash from its erstwhile radical Islamist allies in Syria's civil war," Robertson said. "Mosul ... has made them the single most dangerous, destabilizing radical group in the region, something al-Maliki's government seems ill-equipped to deal with."
The fall of Mosul -- a predominantly Sunni city with a population of about 1.6 million -- would be a blow to the central government, which is already struggling Tieu canh san vuon to contain an insurgency in central Anbar province.
Mosul, about 560 kilometers (350 miles) northwest of Baghdad, was once called the last stronghold of al Qaeda in Iraq by the U.S. military, and at the height of the Iraq war, Thiet ke san vuon it was considered one of the main entry points for foreign fighters coming into the country by way of Syria.
The security forces, particularly police, have not always been trusted in Mosul. In 2004, thousands of police officers fled their posts amid the Sunni insurgency, leaving U.S. and Kurdish forces to fight to keep control of the city.
This time around, Jala Abdulrahman saw no sign of government authorities in his Mosul neighborhood, prompting him to flee along with his wife, three children and other family members.
"Gunmen are everywhere in my neighborhood," he told CNN by telephone. "...Where are the Iraqi army and police? Where are the politicians that we trusted and voted for?"
By late Tuesday, Abdulrahman and his family were among hundreds waiting at a checkpoint on the road between Mosul and the Erbil, the capital of Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region.
Um Ahmed decided to drive out of Mosul at dawn with her three daughters and two sons. She wasn't taking any chances, especially knowing how gunmen killed her husband outside of a mosque in Mosul a few years ago.
"I left everything behind, and I don't know how long it will take to return back to our home," she said.
Al-Maslawi, the Mosul resident, said that while government forces were absent, ISIS fighters seemed to be in control. Members of the group even urged mobs trying to flee toward Kurdistan to go back home, he said.
"'We will not hurt anyone,'" al-Maslawi said of what ISIS members were saying. "'We have liberated the city of Mosul from al-Maliki forces ... We are running this city, and tomorrow all (businesses) need to be reopened.'
Formost among them is ISIS, which has wrested control of Iraqi cities like Falluja and parts of Ramadi as well as of Syrian towns just over the border. It has done so by exploiting the weakness of Iraq's central Shiite-dominated government, says CNN's Nic Robertson, as it has done in Mosul. Hon non bo
"It is considered too radical even for al Qaeda and, in the past months, has withstood and emerged from a jihadist backlash from its erstwhile radical Islamist allies in Syria's civil war," Robertson said. "Mosul ... has made them the single most dangerous, destabilizing radical group in the region, something al-Maliki's government seems ill-equipped to deal with."
The fall of Mosul -- a predominantly Sunni city with a population of about 1.6 million -- would be a blow to the central government, which is already struggling Tieu canh san vuon to contain an insurgency in central Anbar province.
Mosul, about 560 kilometers (350 miles) northwest of Baghdad, was once called the last stronghold of al Qaeda in Iraq by the U.S. military, and at the height of the Iraq war, Thiet ke san vuon it was considered one of the main entry points for foreign fighters coming into the country by way of Syria.
The security forces, particularly police, have not always been trusted in Mosul. In 2004, thousands of police officers fled their posts amid the Sunni insurgency, leaving U.S. and Kurdish forces to fight to keep control of the city.
This time around, Jala Abdulrahman saw no sign of government authorities in his Mosul neighborhood, prompting him to flee along with his wife, three children and other family members.
"Gunmen are everywhere in my neighborhood," he told CNN by telephone. "...Where are the Iraqi army and police? Where are the politicians that we trusted and voted for?"
By late Tuesday, Abdulrahman and his family were among hundreds waiting at a checkpoint on the road between Mosul and the Erbil, the capital of Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region.
Um Ahmed decided to drive out of Mosul at dawn with her three daughters and two sons. She wasn't taking any chances, especially knowing how gunmen killed her husband outside of a mosque in Mosul a few years ago.
"I left everything behind, and I don't know how long it will take to return back to our home," she said.
Al-Maslawi, the Mosul resident, said that while government forces were absent, ISIS fighters seemed to be in control. Members of the group even urged mobs trying to flee toward Kurdistan to go back home, he said.
"'We will not hurt anyone,'" al-Maslawi said of what ISIS members were saying. "'We have liberated the city of Mosul from al-Maliki forces ... We are running this city, and tomorrow all (businesses) need to be reopened.'
brendakio - 12. Jun, 04:22
