The Islamic State has ordered rival Sunni militant groups in Iraq to lay down their arms and swear allegiance.
After two days of negotiations in Mosul, the Islamic State told the other Sunni groups that they must take an oath of allegiance to the new caliphate, sources told the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Only fighters from the Islamic State will be allowed to carry weapons, the sources said.
The radical al-Qaida breakaway group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, announced on Sunday that it was renaming itself the Islamic State and declaring a caliphate, or transnational Islamic government.
The group’s mysterious leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was named caliph, or leader of the caliphate.
As a senior Sunni rebel source told the BBC, “Our revolution has been hijacked.”
Today’s other news from Iraq:
- Control over dwindling water supplies in Iraq and Syria is becoming a key part of the Islamic State’s strategy to control the region, security analysts told The Guardian.
-The crisis in Iraq is restoring the influence of Saudi Arabia on the global oil market, according to this article in Forbes.
-Four people were killed and dozens injured in Karbala and al-Diwanya in clashes between Iraqi forces and supporters of Shiite cleric Al Sayid Al Sarkhi Al Hasani, al-Jazeera reports. The Iraqi air force raided the main base of the cleric and government forces bombed locations inside the two cities before storming them, according to the Arabic satellite channel. The clashes come after the Shiite cleric announced his refusal of Sistani's fatwa, or religious edict, that called for Iraqis to fight rebel militants.
- An Iraqi medical source announced that 7 civilians were killed, dozens injured in the shelling of Iraqi forces in Falluja, northwest of Bagdad. Dr. Ahmad Al Shami, working in Falluja hospital, told al-Jazeera that the shelling caused a big damage in 9 houses and led to the destruction of 14 shops. The shelling also damaged three mosques and some government buildings. The plant for producing electricity in al-Saklawiya also was damaged and electricity was cut, al-Jazeera reports.
- The Iraqi air force reportedly killed 60 Islamic State fighters, among them Saudis and Chechens in Jarf Al Sakhr area, to the northwest of Al Hilla in Babil, a source close to the Iraqi government said on Iraq Media Net, an Arabic news website. The website also reported that Babil Mayor Raed Al Jburi announced Tuesday a boycott of the Saudi goods, saying that these goods will not be allowed in Babil because the kingdom is supporting terrorist militants in Iraq.
- Sixteen people were killed and five injured in an airstrike that targeted the al-Shirkat area close to Baiji in Tikrit, the Iraq News Network reports.
- Three mortars fell near a Shi'ite holy shrine in Samarra injuring a few people. An Iraqi government source said that the shrine itself wasn't affected, and that the Iraqi air force retaliated against attackers, according to al-Jazeera.
- In Baghdad, police found two bodies with their hands tied behind their backs and bullet wounds in the head and chest in the mainly Shi'ite neighborhood of Shula, police and medical sources told Reuters. Reuters also reports that a bomb went off in western Jihad district, killing two passersby and wounding six more.