Is Iraq-Syria becoming new Afpak?

A day after Iranian President Hasan Rouhani called on Turkey to jointly fight against regional extremist terrorism for the stability of both countries and of the Middle East region, jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized Iraq’s northern province of Nineveh, including Mosul, and were heading toward the province of Salahaddin, on the road to Baghdad.   

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki asked Parliament to declare a state of emergency after thousands of Sunni Islamist insurgents seized control of the country’s second largest city and called on the United Nations, the European Union and the Arab League to lend support in Iraq’s fight against terrorism.

Thousands of residents had to flee Mosul, according to eye witnesses, as military units as well as police and other security forces withdrew from the city to the mercy of militants. Al-Maliki announced that the Iraqi government will provide weapons and equipment to citizens who volunteer to fight against jihadists in a risky move to turn each piece of the country into a battleground.   

Believed to be composed of around 10,000 jihadists with some of them even coming from western countries to fight against the Iraqi army and seize control in the country’s mostly Sunni regions, the ISIL denies its affiliation with the al-Qaeda and claims to be moving independently. The ISIL has recently launched operations in different provinces of the country and yesterday seized control of Mosul, a city of Arabs, Turkmens and Kurds.

This province is very close to the Kurdish-controlled northern part of Iraq and the recent offensive
against the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) killing a score of people could also drag the...