BAGHDAD: Iraqi forces were massing north of Baghdad, aiming to strike back at rebels who have taken control of large parts of the country.
The governor of Salahadin province, Abdullah al-Jibouri, said 50,000 soldiers were now stationed around holy city of Samarra, intending to regain territory lost to rebel groups led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).
Al-Jibouri, whose provincial capital, Tikrit, was taken by anti-government fighters last week, was seen on television on Friday speaking to Iraqi soldiers, the Reuters news agency reported.
“Today we are coming in the direction of Tikrit, Sharqat and Nineveh,” said al-Jibouri, a Sunni ally of Iraq’s Shia Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Samarra, which is 100kms north of Baghdad, has become the frontline in the battle with radical fighters allied to ISIS.
After rapid gains last week the rebel advance has been largely halted, with heavy fighting continuing in several towns.
Al Jazeera reported Friday that Iraqi forces regained control of the oil refinery outside the town of Baiji, 43km from Tikrit.
The rapid gains by the rebels prompted the United States to on Thursday announce the deployment of 300 military advisers to Iraq, stopping short of granting Maliki’s request for air strikes.
US President Barack Obama called on the Iraqi prime minister to do more to overcome sectarian divisions that have fuelled resentment among the large Sunni minority.
Obama’s comments were echoed by the French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius who said Iraq needed a national unity government “with or without” Maliki.
Fabius said it was critical for the Iraqi government to reach out to ordinary Sunnis before they sided with ISIL.
The al-Qaeda splinter group, which has its roots in the war that followed the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, is known for its fiery rhetoric, and targeting of Shias.
Pictures published by ISIS-related Twitter accounts last week showed dozens of Shia Iraqis being executed by the group.
ISIS is receiving logistical support and motivation from members of the Baath Party,” military expert Anwar Mahmud Khalaf al-Juburi told AFP, referring to Saddam’s otherwise secular party.
There are “ideological difference between (Baathists) and the jihadist organisations, but they are supporting ISIS in this phase because (they think) the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” he said.
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