ISIL militants plan to march on Baghdad: SITE monitors

Militants who have seized a large swathe of northern and north-central Iraq now plan to march on the capital Baghdad, a US-based monitoring group said Wednesday.

According to AFP, in a lightning offensive, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants seized Tikrit earlier, its latest success following a spectacular assault late Monday on Mosul, a city of two million.
The militants’ advances have forced as many as half a million people to flee their homes.
ISIL spokesman Abu Mohammed Al-Adnani promised that the battle would “rage” on Baghdad and Karbala, a city southwest of the capital that is considered one of the holiest sites for Shiite Muslims, the SITE Intelligence Group said.
“Do not relent against your enemy… The battle is not yet raging, but it will rage in Baghdad and Karbala,” Adnani said, according to a SITE translation of an audio statement released on the militants’ Twitter feed.