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Iraqi militants capture two border posts, western towns

BAGHDAD — Sunni militants yesterday seized two border crossings, one with Jordan and another with Syria, as they pressed on with their offensive in one of Iraq’s most restive regions, having captured a fourth town in western Anbar province as the United States Secretary of State arrived in Egypt for a regional trip to push for a new, cross-sectarian Iraqi government.

BAGHDAD — Sunni militants yesterday seized two border crossings, one with Jordan and another with Syria, as they pressed on with their offensive in one of Iraq’s most restive regions, having captured a fourth town in western Anbar province as the United States Secretary of State arrived in Egypt for a regional trip to push for a new, cross-sectarian Iraqi government.

Iran’s supreme leader, however, came out forcefully yesterday against any US intervention in Iraq, accusing Washington of fomenting the unrest and appearing to quash recent speculation that the two rivals might cooperate in addressing the shared threat posed by the advance of the extremists.

Officials said militants yesterday captured the Turaibil crossing with Jordan and the Al Walid crossing with Syria. A day earlier, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) took control of an Iraqi-Syrian border crossing after Syrian rebels withdrew. ISIS, which has exploited the chaos of the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to seize territory, and its allied militants have carved out a large fiefdom along the Iraqi-Syrian border.

US President Barack Obama said in an interview that aired on CBS yesterday that ISIS poses a medium- and long-term threat, warning that the insurgency could spill over to Jordan and worsen the situation in Syria. He has offered up to 300 US special forces advisers to help the Iraqi government recapture territory, but has held off granting a request for air strikes.

Officials also said yesterday that the insurgents had seized another town in Anbar, Rutba, the fourth to fall in two days. The towns of Qaim, Rawah, Anah and Rutba were the first seized in the mainly Sunni Anbar province since ISIS and its allies — who include followers of the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein — overran the city of Fallujah and parts of the provincial capital of Ramadi earlier this year.

The capture of Rawah on the Euphrates River and the nearby town of Anah appeared to be part of a march towards a key dam in the city of Haditha, the destruction of which would damage the country’s electrical grid and cause major flooding.

Taking Rutba gives the insurgents control over the final stretch of a major highway to Jordan, a key artery for passengers and goods. Chief military spokesman Qassim Al Moussawi said government forces had made a tactical retreat from the Anbar towns and planned to retake them.

The capture of the towns is significant because it could help them with the movement of supplies, Mr Theodore Karasik, director of research at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai, said in a phone interview. “It secures routes along tribal lines that run between Jordan, Syria and Iraq.”

Iraq’s crisis flared when fighters from ISIS, an Al Qaeda breakaway group, this month captured Mosul, the country’s biggest northern city, and engaged with Iraqi forces in towns just north of the capital, Baghdad.

Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Cairo yesterday morning on the first leg of a trip that is intended to hasten the formation of a cross-sectarian government in Iraq.

In his swing through Middle Eastern capitals, Mr Kerry plans to send two messages on Iraq. One is that Arab states should use their influence with Iraqi politicians and prod them to quickly form an inclusive government. Another is that they should crack down on funding to ISIS. The group is largely self-sustaining because of success in extortion and its plundering of banks in Mosul. But some funding “has flowed into Iraq from its neighbours”, said a senior official on Mr Kerry’s plane.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the top leader of Iran, which has strong influence over Baghdad, yesterday said in his first reaction to the crisis: “We strongly oppose the intervention of the US and others in the domestic affairs of Iraq. The main dispute in Iraq is between those who want Iraq to join the US camp and those who seek an independent Iraq. The US is seeking an Iraq under its hegemony and ruled by its stooges.” AGENCIES

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