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Gunmen fighting Iraqi forces seized a town less than two hours by car from the Jordanian border as President Barack Obama warned that advances by Sunni militants could spill over into neighbouring countries.
Fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), an Al Qaida breakaway group, seized the towns of Ana and Rawa in the western, Sunni-dominated Anbar province, Faleh al-Issawi, the deputy chief of the provincial council in Anbar, said by phone on Sunday. They also seized Rutba, about 145 km east of the Jordanian border.
The militants are "destabilising the country," Obama told CBS in an interview. "That could spill over into some of our, you know, allies like Jordan and that they are engaged in wars in Syria where - in that vacuum that's been created - they could amass more arms, more resources."
Iraq's crisis flared when ISIL fighters this month captured Mosul, the country's biggest northern city, and engaged with Iraqi forces in towns just north of Baghdad. The US, which withdrew its forces from Iraq three years ago, has put the onus on leaders including Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to form a more inclusive government.
The pace of US diplomacy will likely intensify with Secretary of State John Kerry now arriving in the region.
"The United States would like to see the Iraqi people find leadership that is prepared to represent all of the people of Iraq, that is prepared to be inclusive and share power," Kerry said at a press conference in Cairo on Sunday. Such a step would allow Iraq to "focus on the real danger" to the region, "which is ISIL".
ISIL militants and Sunni supporters now control territory in Iraq from Mosul in the north to Rutba in the west. Rutba is located next to a highway running from Baghdad to the Jordanian border and is the last major town before crossing into Jordan.
The town's capture is "significant because it could help them with the movement of supplies," Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai, said in a phone interview. "It secures routes along tribal lines that run between Jordan, Syria and Iraq."
The advances made by the Sunni militants has edged the country closer to sectarian strife.
Thousands of armed Shia militiamen staged military-style parades on Saturday in cities including Baghdad, Basra, Najaf and Kut, Al Arabiya television reported, broadcasting footage. In Baghdad, militiamen loyal to anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr marched through the Shia Sadr City district, Al Arabiya reported. Some wore military fatigues and carried weapons.
