In this Thursday, July 31, 2014 photo, a column of smoke rises from an oil refinery in Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, after an attack by Islamic militants. June’s rapid advance of the Islamic State group, which captured Iraq’s second largest city of Mosul, has plunged the country into its worst crisis since the withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011 with more than a million Iraqis now classified as internally displaced or refugees. AP
BAGHDAD — Below are the main developments in Iraq since Sunni Arab militants led by ultra-radical jihadists launched an offensive, seizing large swathes of territory in the north and the west of the country:
A bicyclist rides by the destroyed old Mosque of The Prophet Jirjis in central Mosul, Iraq, AP
JUNE 2014
– 10: Sunni Arab militants, led by jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, later renamed the Islamic State (IS), seize Iraq’s second biggest city Mosul as government forces take flight.
– 11: The insurgents seize executed dictator Saddam Hussein’s hometown Tikrit, capital of Salaheddin province.
– 12: Kurdish forces take over the long-coveted northern oil hub of Kirkuk, taking advantage of the flight of government forces in the face of jihadist advances on several Arab towns in the west of the province.
– 15: Militants seize the Al-Adhim area in Diyala province, north of Baghdad.
– 19: The insurgents attempt to seize Iraq’s biggest oil refinery outside the northern town of Baiji but after 24 hours of heavy fighting the army regains control.
– US President Barack Obama says Washington is prepared to send military advisers to study how to train and equip Iraqi forces.
– 20: Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest religious authority for the Shiite majority, says the jihadists must be expelled quickly from Iraq and that the next government must avoid “past mistakes”, an apparent rebuke to Nuri al-Maliki, premier since 2006 and accused of sectarian bias against the Sunni Arab minority.
– 23: Insurgents overrun the strategic Shiite-majority northern town of Tal Afar and its airport.
– 29: The jihadists declare an “Islamic caliphate” — extending from Aleppo in northern Syria to Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. Renaming itself the IS, it declares its chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi “caliph” and “leader for Muslims everywhere”.
JULY
This July, 20, 2014 photos shows Islamic militant and tribal fighters showing dead bodies of they said were Iraqi Army soldiers in Karmah, east of Fallujah, Iraq. Sunni militants seized control of the Anbar city of Fallujah, and parts of Ramadi in January. The government has since reasserted its control of Ramadi, but Fallujah remains in insurgent hands. AP
– 3: Massud Barzani, the president of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, asks its parliament to start organising a referendum on independence.
– 4: Baghdadi, delivering a sermon in a Mosul mosque and appearing on video for the first time, orders all Muslims to obey him, in a video released the next day on social media.
– 18: Christians flee Mosul after mosques relay an ultimatum giving the minority the option of converting, paying special taxes for non-Muslims, leave or be killed.
AUGUST
– 2-3: The IS conquers several Kurdish-held towns, including Sinjar and Zumar near the Syrian border, ousting Kurdish peshmerga fighters. Tens of thousands of civilians flee.
– 4: Maliki orders the airforce to provide support to peshmerga forces in their battle against jihadists.
A member of Iraq’s Special Weapons and Tactics Team stands guard as blindfolded suspected terrorists are displayed at the federal police headquarters in Basra, Iraq, Sunday, July 20, 2014. Iraq’s SWAT arrested 21 suspected terrorists during recent security operations in Basra, according to police. AP
– 6: Kurdish fighters from Iraq, Syria and Turkey decide to coordinate operations in northern Iraq to reclaim areas lost to jihadists.
– 7: Gunmen from the IS seize Qaraqosh, Iraq’s largest Christian town, leading tens of thousands to flee.
– France calls for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
– The peshmerga forces protecting the Mosul dam, said to be Iraq’s largest, say they repelled a jihadist attack.
– French President Francois Hollande pledges his country’s “support” to forces battling the Islamist militants in Iraq.
RELATED STORY
Obama authorizes air strikes to prevent Iraq ‘genocide’