Thursday 12 June 2014 14.08 Islamic militants are pushing towards Baghdad after capturing a town only 90km to its north, in a three-day offensive the Iraqi government has failed to stop.
The militants' advances have forced as many as half a million people to flee their homes.
Meanwhile, Kurdish forces are in full control of Iraq's oil-rich city of Kirkuk after the federal army abandoned its bases there, a Kurdish military spokesman said.
Kirkuk lies at the heart of a long-running dispute between the federal government in Baghdad and the Kurds.
Kurds run their own autonomous region in the north of the country and have an armed force called the peshmerga.
Elsewhere, fighters from the Sunni Muslim Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant seized the town of Dhuluiyah, according to a municipal councillor, a police colonel and witnesses.
The nearby Muatassam area has also fallen to militants, the municipal council member and witnesses said.
ISIL spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani promised the group would push on to Baghdad and Karbala, in a statement carried by jihadists websites.
Karbala is a city southwest of the capital that is one of the holiest sites for Shia Muslims.
With militants closing in, Iraq's parliament is to meet for an emergency session today to consider a request from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the president's office for it to declare a state of emergency.
Doing so requires a two-thirds vote, making it unlikely to pass the sharply divided parliament.
Yesterday, the militants were driven back in heavy fighting when they tried to enter Samarra, to the north, bypassing it and heading to Dhuluiyah.
Army Staff Lieutenant General Sabah al-Fatlawi said soldiers and "elite forces" backed by air strikes defeated a "fierce attack by ISIL members," and that troops were regrouping to counter attack.
Samarra is mainly Sunni Arab but is home to a shrine revered by the country's Shia majority, a site whose bombing by al-Qaeda-linked militants in 2006 sparked a Shia-Sunni conflict that killed tens of thousands.
"There is panic among residents," who are buying up goods and forming long queues at petrol stations, Thair Mohammed told AFP from the city.
A resident of Dhuluiyah, Abu Abdullah, said the situation there was calm today, but people were keeping to their houses.
He said he heard air strikes the night before.
ISIL has spearheaded a major offensive that began late Monday and since overrun the entire northern province of Nineveh and significant parts of Kirkuk to its southeast and Salaheddin to its south.
The offensive began in Nineveh provincial capital Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city.
Witnesses said today that people there were increasingly venturing out of their homes and that shops were reopening, but government offices remained shuttered.
US backs Iraqi leaders after militants' advance
Meanwhile, the United States has vowed support to Iraqi leaders as they combat the militant offensive.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Washington "strongly condemns the recent attacks in Iraq by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant".
"The United States will stand with Iraqi leaders across the political spectrum as they forge the national unity necessary to succeed in the fight against ISIL," he added in a statement.
Washington also promised to boost aid to Iraq and is weighing drone strikes at the government's request.
"We will work with Congress to support the new Counterterrorism Partnerships Fund, which will provide flexibility and resources to help Iraq respond to emerging needs as the terrorist threat from ISIL continues to evolve," Mr Carney said.
"Under the Strategic Framework Agreement, we will also continue to provide, and as required increase, assistance to the Government of Iraq to help build Iraq's capacity to effectively and sustainably stop ISIL's efforts to wreak havoc in Iraq and the region."
The request for air strikes has been turned down in the past. However, Washington is now weighing several possibilities for more military assistance to Baghdad, including drone strikes, a Western official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Resorting to such aircraft would mark a dramatic shift in the US engagement in Iraq, after the last American troops pulled out in late 2011.
But State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki stressed there were no current plans to send US troops back to Iraq, where around 4,500 Americans died in the eight-year conflict.
She also denied the offensive, in which the militants seized northern Mosul and then Tikrit, had caught Washington by surprise or marked a failure of US policy in the country it invaded in 2003.
Call for release of Turkish citizens
Turkey has warned it would retaliate if any of its 80 nationals, including special forces soldiers, diplomats and children, seized in Iraq were harmed.
Ambassadors of the NATO defence alliance held an emergency meeting in Brussels at Turkey's request.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan held talks with President Abdullah Gul, his intelligence chief and the chief of general staff and talked to US Vice President Joe Biden about the developments.
Sunni insurgents from the ISIL seized 49 people from the Turkish consulate in the city of Mosul early yesterday, including the consul-general, family members and Turkish special forces.
The militants are also holding 31 Turkish truck drivers hostage at a power station in Mosul.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday called for the immediate, unconditional and safe release of those kidnapped from the consulate.
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