Maliki seeks to declare state of emergency after Sunni militants with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant overrun northern city.
Islamic extremists have seized control of much of Mosul in northern Iraq after troops abandoned their posts and government buildings, in a serious blow to Baghdad’s efforts to slow a raging insurgency.
After four days of fighting in which the country’s third most populous city all but slipped from its grasp, Baghdad announced it would arm citizens in a bid to curb the threat from extremists in three cities and much of the northern countryside. Details about the plan were initially sparse, but Iraqi officials suggested a collaboration between tribal leaders and the US military that quelled an insurgency in 2007 might be used as a template.
The incumbent prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, said during a televised news conference that he had asked the Iraqi parliament to declared a state of emergency.
