Mosul map
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Heavily-armed, Al-Qaeda-affiliated militants have seized the Iraqi city of Mosul, driving back government forces. Officials say the Iraqi Army's soldiers are demoralized and are no match for the attacking militant forces.

"The city of Mosul is outside the control of the state and at the mercy of the militants," an Interior Ministry official told AFP on Monday. It is now the second city to fall under control of Islamist fighters since the beginning of this year. In January militants seized the city of Fallujah, displacing over 70,000 people

On Monday night fighters from Al-Qaeda affiliated group Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) stormed provincial government headquarters armed with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns.


The city's governor, Atheel Nujaifi, was caught inside the building at the time of the attack, but managed to escape, while local police battled to fend off the militants. Earlier that day Nujaifi appealed to the inhabitants of Mosul to fight the invaders.

"I call on the men of Mosul to stand firm in their areas and defend them against the outsiders, and to form popular committees through the provincial council," said Nujaifi in a statement.

Unnamed officials told Reuters that government fighters were demoralized and seriously outmatched by the militant forces.

Eyewitness accounts describe the scenes of chaos on the streets of Iraq's second-largest city as people fled for their lives. A number of reports say that militants are freeing detainees from police stations, while AL RAI Chief International Correspondent Elijah J Magnier tweeted that the ISIS had freed over 2000 inmates from a "counter terrorism prison."

"The situation is chaotic inside the city and there is nobody to help us," a Christian mother of two told AP. "We are afraid ... There is no police or army in Mosul."

In response to the escalation, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has called on parliament to declare a state of emergency.

The Prime Minister has been struggling to control the recent outbreak of sectarian violence in the country. Al-Maliki is a Shiite Muslim and has become unpopular with Iraq Sunni minority, which has accused the government of discrimination. Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan regional government of Iraqi Kurdistan laid the blame for the siege at the feet of the Iraqi central government in a statement on Tuesday. He claimed they had been warned that ISIS forces were converging on Mosul, but failed to take any action.