Iraqi troops, some in civilian clothes, retreat from Kirkuk

(11 Jun 2014) Government security forces abandoned their posts and were seen retreating from the Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Wednesday as an al-Qaida splinter group pushed deeper into Iraq's Sunni heartland.
A group of soldiers, many of them in civilian clothes, were seen on the highway to Tikrit, attempting to get rides on a convoy of military and civilian vehicles streaming out of Kirkuk.
Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group have seized wide swathes of territory, aiming to create an Islamic emirate spanning both sides of the Iraq-Syria border.
They conquered Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit on Wednesday, after taking control on Tuesday of much of Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, sending an estimated half a (m) million fleeing from their homes.
As in Tikrit, the Sunni militants were able to move in Mosul after police and military forces melted away after relatively brief clashes.
The capture of Mosul - along with the fall of Tikrit and ISIL's earlier seizure of the western city of Fallujah - have undone hard-fought gains against insurgents in the years following the 2003 invasion by US-led forces.


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