Hundreds of Iraqis volunteer to fight terrorism

Hundreds of Iraqi volunteers have queued near an army recruitment center in Baghdad to join the Iraqi forces in their fight against the Takfiri terrorists controlling some northern areas of the Arab state.

Reports say Iraqi men have rushed to a recruitment center in the capital, Baghdad, voicing their readiness to assist the country’s armed forces in combating terrorism.

“Young Iraqi people have started, since yesterday, … [gathering in] the recruitment centers to volunteer and join the Iraqi army,” said a senior army official, adding, “Hundreds of young people, and even old men, came to volunteer to defend Iraq and its sacred places and all of its areas.”

The report comes hours after militants belonging to the al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) vowed to march towards the Iraqi capital.

The militants are now in control of some areas in northern Iraq. They have also threatened to spread the violence to the holy Shia cities of Najaf and Karbala.

On June 10, Iraq’s northern Nineveh Province fell into the hands of the militants. The Takfiri attacks have reportedly forced more than half a million people in and around Nineveh’s provincial capital, Mosul, to flee their homes.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has pledged to take tough action against the al-Qaeda-linked militants, adding that Baghdad “will never permit Mosul and Nineveh to remain under the shadow of terror and the terrorists.”
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have also condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Mosul, which is the second largest city in Iraq.