Iraq

Turkey raised fears on June 25 over potential spillover from turmoil in neighbouring Iraq, as NATO promised not to hesitate to defend its ally from the widening conflict.    

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on June 25 ruled out forming a national emergency government to confront a Sunni militant offensive that has overrun large parts of the country.

"The call to form a national emergency government is a coup against the constitution and the political process," Maliki said in a televised address.

Al-Qaeda's Syrian offshoot on June 25 made an oath of loyalty to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant at a key town on the Iraqi border, a monitor said.

US military advisers have begun arriving in Baghdad to help the Iraqi army in fighting against the Sunni insurgency.

A total of 300 US military advisers and troops are expected to be stationed in Baghdad. Initially they will not be involved directly in the fighting, but will carry out surveillance and plan the combat operations, Al-Jazeera reports.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will attend key NATO discussions on Iraq on June 25, the day after U.S. military advisers began moving into Baghdad as Iraqi forces battle Sunni militants.

Iraqi government troops held off Sunni insurgent attacks on a key town and an oil refinery Tuesday as Kerry pushed for unity in a conflict the UN says has killed nearly 1,100.

Since June 10, the day when jihadist terrorists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) seized control of Mosul, the situation in the field has been getting worse every day, with the worrying prospect of a large scale civil war between Iraq’s two prominent sects, Shiites vs. Sunnis.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has engaged in something that might shock Turks… Rather than engaging in a rhetorical, “The government is all wrong” campaign, issued a policy brief prepared by its “Research and Policy Development Department.” Thus, this writer and the world learned there is such department in the main opposition party.

Turkey’s energy watchdog has reportedly threatened fuel companies with a price ceiling if they do not cut diesel prices by 4 kuruş by June 26.

The Energy Market Regulation Board (EPDK) Chairman Mustafa Yılmaz asked fuel distributors to slash market prices of gasoline and diesel fuel during a meeting with company representatives June 24.

More than 1,000 people -- at least three-quarters of them civilians -- were killed this month as Islamist militants swept through large swathes of northern and western Iraq, the United Nations said Tuesday.
      

At least 1075 people were killed in Iraq from June 5 to 22, UN estimates reveal as the country has plunged into a conflict between the government and Islamist-led fighters.

UN human rights office spokesman Rupert Colville elaborated the numbers "should be viewed very much as a minimum," the BBC quoted him as saying.