Militants attacked one of Iraq’s largest air bases and seized control of several small oilfields yesterday, as US special forces troops and intelligence analysts arrived to help Iraqi security forces counter a mounting Sunni insurgency.

Iraqi prime minister Nouri al- Maliki, who is fighting for his job and is under international pressure to create a more inclusive government, said he supported starting the process of forming a new cabinet within a week.

In northern Iraq the Sunni militants extended a two-week advance that has been led by the hardline Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis), also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, but also includes an amalgam of other Sunni groups angered by Mr Maliki’s rule.

They blame Mr Maliki for marginalising their sect during eight years in power.

US secretary of state John Kerry pressed Iraqi officials to form an “inclusive” government during a visit this week and urged leaders of the autonomous Kurdish region to stand with Baghdad against the onslaught.

A parliament session is planned within a week that will start the process of forming a new government based on the results of elections held in April. Mr Maliki’s Shia-led State of Law coalition won most seats but needs support of other Shia groups, Sunnis and Kurds to build a government.

“We will attend the first session of parliament,” Mr Maliki said on state television, adding the commitment stemmed from “loyalty to our people” and respect for a call by Iraq’s foremost Shia clergy.

Lost control

Two days later, Kurdish forces moved into Kirkuk, where violence also flared on Wednesday when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance of a crowded market, killing six people and wounding 23, police and medics said.

The UN says more than 1,000 people, mainly civilians, have been killed during Isis’s advance. In addition to the bloodshed, close to a million people have been displaced in Iraq this year.

US president Barack Obama has ruled out sending ground troops back to Iraq where they withdrew in 2011. He has offered up to 300 American military advisers, about 130 of whom have now been deployed.

Iraqi state television reported that newly arrived Pentagon advisers met Baghdad’s operations commander and agreed to set up a joint operation command.

Baghdad is racing against time as insurgents consolidate their grip on Sunni provinces. On Wednesday, militants overran the Ajeel oil site, 30km east of Tikrit, which has at least three small oilfields producing 28,000 barrels per day, an engineer working at the field said.

Ajeel is connected to two pipelines, one running to Turkey’s Ceyhan port and the other to the Baiji oil refinery, which remained a frontline early yesterday.

State TV showed troop reinforcements flying into the compound by helicopter to fend off the assault on Baiji, a strategic industrial complex 200km north of Baghdad.

Local tribal leaders said they were negotiating with both the Shia-led government and Sunni fighters to allow the tribes to run the plant if Iraqi forces withdraw. The plant has been fought over since last Wednesday, with sudden reversals for both sides and no clear winner so far.

Militants including Isis and allied Sunni tribes battled Iraqi forces in the town of Yathrib, 90km north of Baghdad, into the early hours of yesterday, witnesses and the deputy head of the municipality said. Four militants were killed, they said.

Insurgents have surrounded a massive air base nearby, which was known as “Camp Anaconda” under US occupation, and struck it with mortars. – (Reuters)