US mulls 'all options' as fighters move nearer Baghdad

BAGHDAD: Fighters pushed towards Baghdad Friday as President Barack Obama said he was exploring all options to save Iraq´s security forces from collapse and US companies evacuated hundreds from a major air base.

With fighters closing in on the capital, forces from Iraq´s autonomous Kurdish region took control of a swathe of territory they have sought to rule for decades against the objections of successive governments in Baghdad.

Foreign Minister Hosyhar Zebari acknowledged that the security forces Washington invested billions of dollars in training and equipping before withdrawing its own troops in 2011 had simply melted away.

Obama said Iraq was going to need "more help from the United States and from the international community."

"Our national security team is looking at all the options... I don´t rule out anything," he said.

Russia said the lightning gains by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a movement so radical it has been disavowed even by Al-Qaeda´s leadership, showed the pointlessness of the 2003 US-led invasion, carried out in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

Washington found rare common cause with its longtime foe Tehran, with both voicing dismay at the Sunni extremists´ advance and pledging to boost aid to Iraq´s beleaguered Shiite prime minister.

The fighters, who have swept up a huge swathe of predominantly Sunni Arab territory in northern and north-central Iraq since launching their offensive in the second city Mosul late Monday, advanced into ethnically divided Diyala province.

On Friday, they were fighting pro-government forces near Muqdadiyah, just 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the Baghdad city limits.

Kurds step into breach
Diyala´s mixed Arab, Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite population has made the province a byword for violence ever since the 2003 overthrow of Arab dictator Saddam Hussein.

Kurdish security forces moved into the strategic Saadiyah and Jalawla districts of the province overnight after the army withdrew, Deputy Governor Furat al-Tamimi said.

Kurdish forces already took control of the ethnically divided northern oil city of Kirkuk on Thursday when central government troops pulled out.

It has been the fulfilment of a decades-old Kurdish ambition, opposed by successive governments in Baghdad, to expand their autonomous region in the north to incorporate a swathe of historically Kurdish-majority territory across northern and north-central Iraq.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki´s government has been left floundering by the speed of the assault.

The swift collapse of Baghdad´s control comes on top of the loss of Fallujah, west of Baghdad, earlier this year. It has been a blow for Western governments that have paid a steep price both in lives and money in Iraq.

The Iraqi foreign minister acknowledged the collapse of the security forces in Mosul and other cities, with many personnel melting away after discarding their uniforms.

"It is a setback definitely for the Iraqi security forces, who collapsed in the largest city and abandoned their weapons and equipment," he said.