Allahu Akbar!

Via Telegraph:

Iraqi leaders warned on Wednesday of a “mortal” threat to their country’s existence, as Sunni insurgents who seized control of the northern city of Mosul extended their grip across the country, grabbing oil refineries and embarking on an orgy of kidnappings and beheadings.

As more than half a million people fled the country’s northern capital, the al-Qaeda offshoot group behind the uprising, the Islamic State of Iraq and al Shams (Syria), declared that it was in “complete control” of roads in and out of Mosul and the surrounding province.

There were widespread reports of violence spreading to neighbouring provinces across the north, marking the greatest threat to Iraq’s security since the joint Sunni-Shia uprising against US forces in 2004.

ISIS gunmen were reported to have seized an oil refinery in the neighbouring town of Baiji, and kidnapped the head of the city’s Turkish diplomatic mission along with 24 of its staff.

Separately, 15 members of the Iraqi security forces were said to have been beheaded near the northern city of Kirkuk after being kidnapped earlier this week. In the city of Tikrit, the birth place of the late Saddam Hussein, the governor was reported to have been killed after militants over-ran his building on Wednesday.