Zee Media Bureau
Washington: Even as Sunni insurgents are moving closer to Baghdad, the US President Barack Obama said that while America is mulling next step to be taken in the strife-torn country, ruled out military intervention.
Obama further said that the militants could pose a threat eventually to US as well, as per news report.
The Sunni insurgents have seized Mosul and Tikrit cities and are now headed towards Baghdad.
Obama further said that the Iraqi religious leaders require support to fight with the “extremist groups” but need to set aside their differences for US to take action in the ongoing crisis, as per news reports.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani have asked the citizens to join the security forces and fight against the terrorists.
Iraqi Kurdish forces took control of the northern oil city of Kirkuk on Thursday, after government troops abandoned their posts in the face of a march by Sunni rebels toward Baghdad following their capture of the country`s second city, Mosul.
The insurgents, from an al Qaeda splinter group, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) which operates in Iraq and neighboring Syria, overran the city of Tikrit on Wednesday.
It also closed in on the biggest oil refinery in the country at Baiji, making further gains in a rapid military advance against the Shi`ite-led government in Baghdad.
(With Agency Inputs)
