Baghdad

Insurgents seized a mainly ethnic Turkmen city in northwestern Iraq on June 15 after heavy fighting, solidifying their grip on the north after a lightning offensive that threatens to dismember Iraq.

Turkey has made contingency plans for its embassy in Baghdad, but the mission is not under threat at the moment, Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru told reporters June 15.

Yet, the capital city has the risk since the militants took control of the surrounding region, therefore the Turkish citizens should leave Baghdad, he said.

The violence in broad regions of Iraq continues and the crisis has gained a dimension of “sectarian clashes,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated June 15, stressing clashes spread from one region to another at short notice.

Former U.N. and Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi said Sunday the unrest sweeping Iraq stemmed from the international community's negligence of the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

Jihadist-led militants launched a lightning offensive on June 9, advancing to within 80 kilometers of Baghdad's city limits and bringing Iraq's security forces to the brink of collapse.

An Iraqi air strike hit a convoy of Kurdish forces which have moved into an area of eastern Iraq during a militant offensive, killing six fighters, officers and a doctor said June 15.

It was not immediately clear if the Saturday night attack near Khanaqin, which also wounded some 20 others, was specifically targeting the Kurdish troops or a case of mistaken identity.

Mosul Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, who fled from the city after it was seized by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, has called for logistical help and suggested that air strikes could be conducted in “uninhabited areas” against the jihadist group’s bases, in an exclusive interview with daily Radikal.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said U.S. assistance to Iraq, which is seeking to repel a stunning militant advance, would only work if Iraqi leaders overcame deep divisions, the State Department said on June 14

Kerry spoke with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in a call on Saturday, the State Department said in a statement.

Shiite Iran offered Saturday to consider working with longtime foe the United States if it takes the lead in helping push back Sunni Arab militants who have seized a swathe of northern Iraq, as al-Maliki gov't readies offensive.

Recent developments in Iraq do not pose risks to Turkey’s energy supply security because the oil flow from the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline has been suspended for three months anyway, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız has said.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has discussed the growing insurgency in Iraq with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the second time in three days, while Ankara established a crisis desk to inform the Turkish public daily about 80 Turks taken hostage by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Iraq.