According to a report by dailymail.co.uk, Thousands of Iraqis young and old have answered the beleaguered Shia-led government’s call to arms and signed up to protect the capital, and country, from ISIS militants.
As jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant march on Baghdad after capturing swathes of northern Iraq male supporters of the government turned out in droves today to enlist and fight back.
The militants have already seized control of Iraq’s second largest city Mosul and oil-rich Tikrit in less than 48 hours.
But so far government forces have stalled the militants’ remarkably rapid advance near Samarra, a city just 110km (68 miles) north of Baghdad and they are now bombing insurgent positions in and around Mosul – although 500,000 residents have fled, 1. 3 million citizens still remain in the city.
Nevertheless ISIS is pushing ahead with its aim to overthrow the western-backed government as part of its goal to create an Islamic emirate spanning both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.
Al-Qaeda-inspired militants issued an ultra-violent call to arms today as they continue their unrelenting drive towards the capital Baghdad. Continue your march as the battle is not yet raging,’ a voice said to be that of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani says on the message posted this morning on the group’s media website.
