Militants take two Iraqi towns in eastern Diyala province

Militants gained more ground in
Iraq overnight, moving into two towns in the eastern province of Diyala
after security forces abandoned their posts.

Security sources
said the towns of Saadiyah and Jalawla had fallen to the insurgents, as
well as several other villages around the Himreen mountains, which have
long been a hideout for militants.

Kurdish peshmerga forces
deployed more men to secure their political party offices in Jalawla
before the insurgents arrived in the town. There were no confrontations
between them.

The Iraqi army fired artillery at Saadiya and
Jalawla from the nearby town of Muqdadiya, sending dozens of families
fleeing towards Khaniqin near the Iranian border, security sources said.

Militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
overran the northern city of Mosul earlier this week and have since
pressed south towards Baghdad in an onslaught against the Shiite-led
government.

U.S. President Barack Obama threatened U.S. military strikes against the Sunni Islamist militants who want to establish
their own state in Iraq and Syria.

The Kurds, who run their own
autonomous region in the north, have taken the control of the oil-rich of Kirkuk and
other areas outside the formal boundary of their enclave after the Iraqi army retreated.