ISIL declares Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria (LIVE BLOG)

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Iraq's new leader is ___?___

The Washington Post has compiled a list of candidates who might have a shot at replacing Iraq's embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Take a look at the list here.

US reaches out to Sunni, Kurdish leaders

Agence France-Presse — Top US officials Wednesday upped pressure on key Iraqi leaders as political chaos in Baghdad clouded American hopes for a unity government to tackle the country's sectarian breakdown.

Vice President Joe Biden, who frequently burns up the phone lines to Baghdad, talked to the speaker of Iraq's previous parliament, Osama al-Nujaifi, a prominent Sunni leader.

Secretary of State John Kerry meanwhile met a Kurdish delegation in Washington and also spoke to Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani by phone.

The White House said Biden and Nujaifi agreed on the importance of Iraqis "moving expeditiously to form a new government capable of uniting the country." 

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Kerry emphasized with Barzani the urgency of Kurdish "participation in the government formation process [and] the important role the Kurds [are] playing moving forward."

Maliki says he hopes parliament could get past its 'state of weakness'

Reuters — Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is fighting for his political life as a Sunni insurgency fractures the country, said on Wednesday he hoped parliament could form a new government in its next session after the first collapsed in discord. 

Baghdad can ill afford a long delay. Large swathes of the north and west have fallen under the control of an Al Qaeda splinter group that has declared it is setting up a "caliphate" and has vowed to march on the capital.

Yet the mounting concern and pressure from the United States, Iran, the United Nations and Iraq's own Shia clerics have done little to end the paralyzing divisions between Iraq's main ethnic and sectarian blocs. Sunnis and Kurds walked out of parliament's first session on Tuesday, complaining that Shias had failed to nominate a prime minister; they see Maliki as the main obstacle to resolving the crisis and hope he will step aside.

Under the system put in place after the United States toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003, the premiership is traditionally given to a Shia, while the speaker of the house has been a Sunni and the president, a largely ceremonial role, has been a Kurd. In his weekly televised address, Maliki said he hoped parliament could next Tuesday get past its "state of weakness."

"God willing, in the next session we will overcome it with cooperation and agreement and openness," he said.

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A staggering death toll

Reuters — More than 2,400 Iraqis, most of them civilians, were killed in June as Sunni militants swept through the north triggering the country's worst violence in years, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

The United Nations said "acts of violence and terrorism" killed at least 2,417 Iraqis and wounded 2,287 more in June. Of those killed, 1,531 were civilians, it added.

What's life under ISIL's rule really like?

GlobalPost's Tracey Shelton talked to residents to find out:

Residents in the north said conditions had actually improved in the short-term. There were reports in Mosul and elsewhere of restored water and power supplies, and cheap gas for sale. The checkpoints were no longer.

But analysts warned of a backlash, saying the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and other Sunni militias were likely to enstate strict Shariah law and squander their warm welcome before too long.

Now, those who fled northern Iraq say they are getting mixed messages from back home.

Sitting in a tent that felt like a sauna in Kalak, Iraqi Kurdistan's largest internally displaced persons camp situated between Mosul and Erbil, a young man repeated the horror stories he was hearing from friends and relatives still in Mosul.

He spoke of executions, amputations and floggings under the new Shariah code introduced by ISIL for Nineveh province on June 12. “We’re blocked on every side. Trapped in the middle. Only people with money have options.”

“My relative said that anyone caught smoking has his finger cut off, and they whip people with cables for watching the World Cup,” said Zain Abdeen, 24.

Read the full story here. 

Iraq doesn't have a new prime minister… yet

The first post-elections parliamentary session in Baghdad was decidedly chaotic.

Reuters has the report:

Sunnis and Kurds abandoned the first meeting of Iraq's new parliament on Tuesday after Shias failed to name a prime minister to replace Nouri al-Maliki, wrecking hopes that a unity government would be swiftly built to save Iraq from collapse.

The United States, United Nations, Iran and Iraq's own Shia clergy have pushed hard for politicians to come up with an inclusive government to save the country as Sunni insurgents bear down on Baghdad.

But with Shia failing to name a prime minister, Sunnis and Kurds refused to return from recess at the parliamentary chamber in the fortified "green zone" where they were meeting for the first time since an election in April.

Parliament is not likely to meet again for at least a week, leaving the country in a state of political limbo and Maliki clinging to power as a caretaker, rejected by Sunnis and Kurds.

Is Kurdish independence on the horizon?

Saudi Arabia pledges $500 million in humanitarian aid 

Agence France-Presse — Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million in humanitarian aid for Iraq on Tuesday, to be disbursed through the United Nations to those in need regardless of sect or ethnicity, state media reported.

King Abdullah "has ordered $500 million in humanitarian aid to the brotherly people of Iraq affected by the painful events, including the displaced, regardless of their religion, sect, or ethnicity," a foreign ministry spokesman told the official SPA news agency.

Here's a quick rundown of significant developments since yesterday evening

US is sending more troops 

Reuters — The United States is ramping up its military presence in Iraq, deploying around 300 additional troops as well as helicopters and drone aircraft in response security concerns in Baghdad, officials said on Monday. 

Mortar fire near a major Shia shrine wounds at least 14 people

Reuters — At least 14 people were wounded by mortar fire near an important Shia shrine in the Iraqi city of Samarra, officials and security sources said on Tuesday, as the Shia-led government fights a major Sunni insurgency. 

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A truly devastating sight

These AFP/Getty images of the Khazair displacement camp show just one of many hardships faced by recently displaced Iraqis. Just a few weeks ago, they were forced to flee their homes as a result of ISIL's onslaught. And today, they stand at a camp in the middle of the desert, braving a dust storm. 

ISIL's declaration of a caliphate has 'no meaning,' says US

Agence France-Presse — The United States said Monday the declaration by Sunni militants of an "Islamic caliphate" on territory they have seized in Iraq and Syria has "no meaning."

"We have seen these types of words from ISIL before," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters, referring to militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

"This declaration has no meaning for the people in Iraq and Syria," she said, adding that the militants — who have now renamed their group the Islamic State — were just trying "to control people by fear."

Assuming ISIL actually gets its way, here's what the newest caliphate would look like

Map created by GlobalPost's Simran Khosla. 

Where are the thousands of Iraqis who suddenly lost their homes following ISIL's offensive finding refuge?

As per this graphic from The New York Times, many of the estimated 500,000 Iraqi refugees are going to the Kurdish autonomous region: 

Heartbreaking photos of Iraqis breaking Ramadan fast at an internally displaced persons camp

So, what exactly is a caliphate?

Agence France-Presse has a helpful write-up explaining the history of Islamic caliphates. From the piece: 

After the Prophet Mohammed died in 632 AD, his followers agreed on the caliphate system, meaning succession in Arabic, as the new mode of rule. The caliph's main duty was to implement Muslim law in the land of Islam and spread it across an empire that expanded from what is now western Saudi Arabia.

You can find the complete Q&A here. 

The arms business is booming in Iraq's Kirkuk

GlobalPost's Susannah George and Tracey Shelton talked to arms dealers in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk who had interesting perspectives on the conflict ravaging the country. 

"I wish everyday there was war," said Satar Hashem, a weapons dealer who set up shop on a street corner not far from the city’s nearly 3,000-year-old citadel.

Read the full story here. 

Iraqi militants 'sold oil to the [Assad] regime,' says French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius

Agence France-Presse — French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Monday that jihadists spearheading a militant offensive in Iraq have sold oil from captured areas to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Fabius said the sale was evidence of the "confusing" nature of the escalating conflict in the Middle East in which Assad and the jihadists are in theory on opposing sides.

The rebels, previously known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), declared a "caliphate," or Islamist state, straddling Iraq and Syria at the weekend.

"We have proofs that when ISIL has taken over oil it has sold oil to the [Assad] regime," Fabius told a news conference in New Delhi, without elaborating.

Other revenues and weapons have been seized during the advance by the Islamist fighters, particularly in the town of Mosul.

In Syria the fighters, who have renamed themselves simply the Islamic State (IS), control large swathes of territory, but also face opposition from other rebel groups because of their reputation for brutality.

Referring to how the rebels in Syria and the Assad regime use each other to derive legitimacy, Fabius said: "Officially they are combatting each other but in fact they are very often helping each other."

The situation in Iraq is "very, very, very worrying," he added.

ISIL declares Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria

Reuters — Iraqi troops battled to dislodge an Al Qaeda splinter group from the city of Tikrit on Monday after its leader was declared caliph of a new Islamic state in lands seized this month across a swathe of Iraq and Syria.

Alarming regional and world powers, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) claimed universal authority when it dropped the local element in its name and said its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as leader of the Islamic State, was now caliph of the Muslim world — a mediaeval title last widely recognized in the Ottoman sultan deposed 90 years ago after World War I.

"He is the imam and caliph for Muslims everywhere," group spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani said in an online statement on Sunday, using titles that carry religious and civil power. The declaration came at the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

The move, which follows a three-week drive for territory by ISIL militants and allies among Iraqi's Sunni Muslim minority, aims to erase international borders drawn by colonial powers and defy Baghdad's US- and Iranian-backed, Shia-led government.

It also poses a direct challenge to the global leadership of Al Qaeda, which has disowned it, and to conservative Gulf Arab Sunni rulers who already view the group as a security threat.

The Iraqi government has appealed for international help and has accused Sunni neighbors, notably Saudi Arabia, of having fostered Islamist militancy in Syria and Iraq.

Iraqi army spokesman Qassim Atta said declaring a caliphate could backfire by underlining Baghdadi's group posed a risk to other nations: "This declaration is a message by Islamic State not only to Iraq or Syria but to the region and the world. The message is that Islamic State has become a threat to all countries," he said. "I believe all countries, once they read the declaration, will change their attitudes because it orders everybody to be loyal to it."

The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, with the help of Shia sectarian militias, has managed to stop the militants from reaching the capital but security forces have been unable to take back cities they abandoned in the fighting.

The army attempted last week to take back Tikrit but was unable to seize the city. Helicopters hit Islamic State positions around the city overnight. On the southern outskirts, a battle raged into Monday, residents in the areas said.

Tikrit was the home city of Saddam Hussein, whose overthrow by US forces in 2003 ended a long history of domination by Sunnis over what is today a Shia majority in Iraq. 

Read more

Read more about earlier developments on our live blog from last week.