Militant group, ISIS, have declared an Islamic state or a ‘Caliphate’ in some part of Iraq and Syria.
ISIS, in an audio message posted on the internet, also proclaimed their leader, Abu Bakr Al-baghdadi, as caliph and “leader for Muslims everywhere”.
The group, previously known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and also known as Isis, claims that the Islamic “caliphate” stretches from Aleppo in Syria to Diyala in Iraq.
The move poses a direct challenge to the central leadership of Al Qaeda, which has already disowned it, and to conservative Gulf Arab rulers.
Setting up a caliphate ruled by the strict Islamic law has long been a goal of many Jihadists.
In the meantime, Iraq’s army has continued an offensive to retake the northern city of Tikrit from the ISIS-led rebels.
The city was seized by the insurgents on June 11 as they swept across large parts of northern-western Iraq.
In other news, Thousands of Iraqis have poured into the northern Iraqi town Erbil after conflicts broke out between ISIL militiamen and Kurdish fighters last Wednesday at the christian village of Qaraqosh, 30 kilometers from Iraq’s second largest city Mosul.
The refugees have settled down in cathedrals and other community centers and halls in the christian areas of Erbil but the influx of so many people has stretched the local community to its limit.
In Diyala, more than one thousand families have taken refuge at a camp in the province, as fighting continues between Sunni militants and Iraqi forces.
