Iraqi insurgency

Iran is ready to help Iraq fight an armed revolt using the same methods it deployed against opposition forces in Syria, an Iranian general said, suggesting Tehran is offering to take a larger role in battling Sunni militias threatening Baghdad.

Iraq said it received the first batch of Sukhoi warplanes from Russia as it pressed a counter-attack June 29 against Sunni militants whose offensive threatens to tear the country apart.

Iraqi forces launched an airborne assault on rebel-held Tikrit on June 26 with commandos flown into a stadium in helicopters, at least one of which crashed after taking fire from insurgents who have seized northern cities.

Iraqi forces launched an airborne assault on rebel-held Tikrit on June 26 with commandos flown into a stadium in helicopters, at least one of which crashed after taking fire from insurgents who have seized northern cities.

Syrian fighter jets bombed positions of Islamist insurgents near the border with Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki backs actions of Damascus against the militants led by Sunni extremist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) who control significant parts of the country's territory and also have some gains in Syria.

Syrian warplanes bombed Sunni militants' positions inside Iraq, military officials confirmed Wednesday, deepening the concerns that the extremist insurgency that spans the two neighboring countries could morph into an even wider regional conflict. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned against the threat and said other nations should stay out.
     

Powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has vowed to "shake the ground" under the feet of advancing Sunni militants, as Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki warned rivals against exploiting the crisis to sideline him.

US military advisers have begun arriving in Baghdad to help the Iraqi army in fighting against the Sunni insurgency.

A total of 300 US military advisers and troops are expected to be stationed in Baghdad. Initially they will not be involved directly in the fighting, but will carry out surveillance and plan the combat operations, Al-Jazeera reports.

More than 1,000 people -- at least three-quarters of them civilians -- were killed this month as Islamist militants swept through large swathes of northern and western Iraq, the United Nations said Tuesday.
      

At least 1075 people were killed in Iraq from June 5 to 22, UN estimates reveal as the country has plunged into a conflict between the government and Islamist-led fighters.

UN human rights office spokesman Rupert Colville elaborated the numbers "should be viewed very much as a minimum," the BBC quoted him as saying.