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Russia to back Iraq against jihadists

Calls for PM Maliki's resignation get louder

Agencies
Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday offered Iraq's Shia Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki Moscow's total support to counter Sunni jihadists.
"Putin confirmed Russia's complete support for the efforts of the Iraqi government to speedily liberate the territory of the republic from terrorists," the Kremlin said in a statement following a phone call between the two leaders.
Maliki told Putin about steps Iraq was taking to turn back a lightning offensive by the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) that has overrun swathes of northern and central Iraq.
"It was noted that the activities of extremists conducting military operations on the territory of Syria have taken on a cross-border character and now threaten the security of the whole region," the statement said.
The conversation came after US President Barack Obama stopped short of acceding to Maliki's appeal for air strikes against the Sunni Muslim insurgents, prompting neighbouring Shia Iran to charge that Washington lacked the "will" to fight terror.
Russia has blamed the latest violence sweeping Iraq on the 2003 US-led invasion of the country and said that any strikes on jihadist forces would have to be authorised by the United Nations.
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Meanwhile, Iraq's top Shia cleric yesterday urged all people to unite and expel the Sunni insurgents, as Maliki came under growing pressure to quit power at home and abroad.
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, a revered cleric whose stature dwarfs that of any other figure among the Shia majority, called for Iraqis to band together against the insurgents before it was too late.
If ISIL is not "fought and expelled from Iraq, everyone will regret it tomorrow, when regret has no mean-ing," al-Sistani's spokesman announced yesterday.
The reclusive Sistani, who heads a council of senior clerics, also said Iraq's next government must be "effective" and avoid "past mistakes", an apparent rebuke to Maliki, premier since 2006.
His remarks came after several senior American figures pushed the premier, who is seeking to retain his post after winning a plurality in April 30 elections, to work with Iraq's Sunni Arab and Kurdish minorities.
US Vice President Joe Biden, Defence Secretary Ghuck Hagel, Ghairman of the Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey and David Petraeus, the former top LIS commander in Iraq, have all either called for Maliki to be more inclusive or outright criticised him.
Washington has already positioned an aircraft carrier in the Gulf and is flying manned and unmanned surveillance flights over Iraq.
On the ground, Iraqi security forces were battling militants in several areas yesterday, with 34 members of the security forces killed in a town on the border with Syria, while 30 progovernment Shia militiamen died in a firefight with insurgents northeast of the capital in Diyala province.
A source close to Maliki told Reuters that the government planned to hit back now that it had halted the
advance which saw LSIL seize the main northern city of Mosul, capital of Nineveh province, 10 days ago and sweep down along the Sunni-populated Tigris valley towards Baghdad.
Elsewhere, the battle for the strategic northern town of Tai Afar entered its sixth day. Witnesses said security forces clashed with militants, who still hold significant ground.
Meanwhile, UN aid agencies said they were rushing supplies to Iraq to help more than one million people driven from their homes by the current fighting and unrest earlier this year.
Earlier this week, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned that the conflict threatened to spill over Iraq's borders, interlocking with the civil war in neighbouring Syria, where I SIL is also fighting.