Islamic State fighters extend gains in north Iraq

Reuters ^ | 8/7/2014 | Isabel Coles

[markomalley]

Islamic State militants extended their gains in northern Iraq on Thursday, seizing more towns and strengthening a foothold near the Kurdish region, witnesses said, in an offensive that has alarmed the Baghdad government and regional powers.

The advance came after the Sunni militants inflicted a humiliating defeat on Kurdish forces in a weekend sweep in the north.

The Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria it controls, clashed with Kurdish forces on Wednesday in the town of Makhmur near Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous zone.

Witnesses said the militants had seized Makhmur, but Kurdish officials told local media their forces remained in control there and television channels broadcast footage of peshmerga fighters driving around the town.

The mainly Christian town of Tilkaif, as well as Al Kwair, were overrun by militants, according to witnesses, and residents of Iraq's biggest Christian town, Qaraqosh, fled before the arrival of the Islamist fighters.

[Erik Latranyi]

Obama fiddles........

[Netz]

Where is Obama, Ban Ki Moon, the MSM, Libs, “Free Paleostine” fools, European Union, UNWRA, do-gooders and the rest of humanity? Why is Gaza more important than this story? Israel, along with Egypt Jordan, Lebanon, S. Arabia are all fighting off the Islamic wave.

150,000 dead in Syria and nobody cares?