Channel 4 News
Next on TV
Tonight 7.00pm
Menu
12 Jun 2014

‘March to Baghdad’: Isis spokesman urges Iraq advance

A spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraam (Isis), urges fighters to march on Baghdad, as the group makes rapid advances through Iraq and Kurdish fighters secure the northern city of Kirkuk.

An abandoned uniform and jacket at a checkpoint east of Mosul, Iraq

The audio, obtained by SITE Intelligence Group, is reported to be the words of a spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraam (Isis), which has cut a path through northern Iraq – taking control of Mosul, Iraq’s second city, as well as Tikrit, the hometown of former dictator Saddam Hussein.

On Thursday, Isis forces were reported to have progressed further towards Baghdad, with pictures of fighters inside the city of Samarra, 80 miles north of the Iraqi capital.

However, there were also reports that the Iraqi military had halted the Isis advance, and the Iraqi Oil Minister Kareem Luaibi denied reports that the extremists had seized the country’s biggest oil refinery at Baiji, insisting it was still under government control and operating normally.

Do not give up one span of land that you have liberated, and do not let the Rawafid (Shia) step upon it except over your body parts. Abu Muhammad al-Adnani

In the recording a man said to be spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani says Isis, a Sunni Muslim group that aims to establish an Islamic caliphate spanning Iraq and Syria, has a “score to settle”.

“Roll up your sleeves of seriousness,” he says. “Do not give up one span of land that you have liberated, and do not let the Rawafid (Shia) step upon it except over your body parts.

Meet them in the morning at its walls and do not let them catch their breath. Abu Muhammad al-Adnani

“March to Baghdad al-Rashid, the Baghdad of the caliphate. We have a score to settle, for there is an old balance with it and we must make it even.

“Meet them in the morning at its walls and do not let them catch their breath. Be certain of the victory of Allah as long as you fear Him.

“The Rawafid are a disappointed people and may Allah forbid that they gain victory over you. They are infidels and worshippers of humans and stones.”

Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Rugman in Irbil, northern Iraq: What future for Iraq in the age intervention?

The audio serves as a call to arms against the Shia government, and urges fighters to go beyond Baghdad, to the Shia holy cities of Karbala and Najaf in the south of the country.

Kurdish advance

On Thursday Kurdish peshmerga forces said they had taken control of Kirkuk after the Iraqi army fled from Isis.

“The whole of Kirkuk has fallen into the hands of peshmerga,” said spokesman Jabbar Yawar. “No Iraq army remains in Kirkuk now.”

The head of a Kurdish political party based in Mosul accused the government in Baghdad of wanting the city to fall.

Tactical inaction?

Esmat Rajab, leader of the KDP’s Mosul office, told reporter Zanko Ahmad how he and fellow party members had escaped from the city after Iraqi government troops had abandoned their weapons, and fled their posts. Mr Rajab said Isis forces had been building up in the city since 5 June, but until last Saturday he believed there were only around 1,000 armed men in and around Mosul – a force that the Iraqi army could have resisted if they had chosen to.

Mr Rajab added “I believe al-Maliki (the Iraqi prime minister) wanted Mosul to be captured by Isis so that he could force parliament in Baghdad to declare a state of emergency. Once that happens, he will be the only ruler of Iraq and he will have all authority. Mosul was under seige from Isis for several days, and he didn’t do one thing to stop it.

However, an emergency session of parliament in Baghdad on Thursday failed to attract the required number of MPs to allow a vote to go ahead.

Topics

,,