Iraq government forces fight off rebels north of Baghdad

Iraqi government forces fought off jihadi rebel forces north of Baghdad yesterday amid signs from the US that the Obama administration is hesitating before being drawn into a new war.

Heavy clashes were reported from Baquba after it was taken over by fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis), and in Baghdad eight people were killed by a suicide bomber.

Iranian-backed militiamen were out in force in Shia areas of the capital in an attempt to assure residents that they have a highly volatile situation under control.

There was no sign of imminent military moves by the US, with the White House warning of several days of further consultation.

Senior Democrats have expressed growing caution about the risks of being sucked back in to any conflict.

In London, British prime minister David Cameron warned that Isis militants in Iraq and Syria were the "biggest threat to national security that exists today", as Britain announced plans to reopen its embassy in Tehran, which was shut down after an attack in 2011.

William Hague, the foreign secretary, said that the UK and Iran shared an interest in stability in the region. He also described talk of joint military action in

Iraq as “far too ambitious and unrealistic”.

The UK-Iranian rapprochement has been in the making for months following last year’s Iranian election, President Hassan Rouhani’s more conciliatory approach, and an interim agreement on Iran’s civil nuclear programme.

But it was given an urgent push by the need to try to involve Iran in stabilising Iraq.

Mr Hague’s announcement came amid reports of the clashes in Baquba, less than 40 miles north of Baghdad, and the closest the fighting has come to the Iraqi capital since Isis took over most of the north last week.

Insurgents had taken control of parts of Baquba overnight, but were pushed back. There were reports, too, that Sunni insurgents have attempted to target convoys of Shia volunteers being bussed to the front lines north of the capital. Fighting was also reported in the village of Basheer, south of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, where an attack by militants was repelled after an hour of clashes.

The swift advance of Isis backed up by other disaffected Sunnis has faced little opposition from US-trained Iraqi forces, triggering fears that the extremists will end up controlling a swath of territory from eastern Syria to northern Iraq.

Iraq’s prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, was reported to have fired several senior security force commanders over their failure to halt the insurgent offensive.

In Washington there were signs that Obama is wary over calls for air strikes. Spokesman Jay Carney said the president would “continue to consult his national security team in the days to come”.

Mr Obama met his advisers on Monday evening after announcing a bolstering of the US embassy security presence in Baghdad, but has repeated his concern that military support of the Iraqi government would be of little use without a longer-term political plan to unite the country.

“The president asked his national security team to develop options and that effort continues,” Mr Carney told reporters during a briefing on Air Force One.

He declined to discuss a timeframe for any intervention, and although it is still possible that a surprise attack could be launched or an immediate US response mounted to any Isis assault on Baghdad, there are signs that pressure for action from Congress may be reversing.

On Monday night the Obama administration ordered the urgent deployment of several hundred armed troops in and around Iraq, after the insurgency forced the first, albeit brief, talks in more than a decade between the US and Iran over a common security interest.

As Mr Obama weighs up his options on how to prop up Mr Maliki’s Shia-led government, Iran is already deepening its involvement in Iraq.

Qassem Suleimani, commander of Iran’s Quds force, is in Baghdad providing advice on how to deal with Isis and the Sunni insurgency.

In an intriguing hint of possible cooperation, Iraqi security officials said the US had been notified in advance of the visit by Suleimani, whose forces are a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and have organised Shia militias to target US troops in Iraq and, more recently, have helped the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, in his civil war. Zuhair al-Nahar, a spokesman for Mr Maliki, appealed for help from the US and Britain.

“The government and the armed forces and the volunteers have stopped any advance of the Isis terrorists,” he said in an interview with the BBC.

“The Iraqi air force is carrying out continuous sorties and attacks on convoys and strategic areas of the terrorists. However, Iraq needs all the support it can get. Iraq has asked the US for air strikes to be conducted.

Iraq would like support in counter-terrorism, intelligence activities and advice and training.”

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