Sunni militants captured the northern Iraqi town of Tal Afar early today, its mayor and residents said, the latest blow to the Shiite-led government a week after it lost a vast swath of territory in the country's north.
The town, with a population of some 200,000 people, mostly ethnic Shiite and Sunni Turkomen, was taken just before dawn, Mayor Abdulal Abdoul told The Associated Press.
The ethnic mix of Tal Afar, 420 kilometres northwest of Baghdad, raises the grim spectre of large-scale atrocities by Sunni militants of the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, who already claim to have killed hundreds of Shiites in areas they captured last week.
A Tal Afar resident reached by phone confirmed the town's fall and said militants in pickup trucks mounted with machine guns and flying black jihadi banners were roaming the streets as gunfire rang out.
The local security force left the town before dawn, said Hadeer al-Abadi, who spoke to the AP as he prepared to head out of town with his family.
Local tribesmen who continued to fight later surrendered to the militants, he said.
"Residents are gripped by fear and most of them have already left the town to areas held by Kurdish security forces," said al-Abadi.
Security at the US Embassy in Baghdad was strengthened and some staff members were sent elsewhere in Iraq and to neighbouring Jordan, the State Department said yesterday.
A military official said about 150 Marines have been sent to Baghdad to help with embassy security.
The State Department also issued a travel warning for Iraq last night, which cautioned US citizens to avoid "all but essential travel to Iraq."
The warning said the Baghdad International Airport was "struck by mortar rounds and rockets" and that the international airport in Mosul, the country's second-largest city, has also been the target of militant assault.
However, a senior Baghdad airport official, Saad al-Khafagi, denied that the facility or surrounding areas have been hit. State-run Iraqiya television also denied the attack, quoting the Ministry of Transport.
A city of seven million, Baghdad is not in immediate danger of falling in the hands of the Sunni militants, but a string of bombings yesterday killed 19 people and wounded more than 40. The violence added to the nervousness of the Iraqi capital's residents.
