Iraq presses counter-offensive, ISIL declares 'caliphate'
June 30, 2014 08:24
Iraqi forces pressed a counter-attack on Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit today as jihadists who led a blistering Sunni militant offensive that captured swathes of territory declared a "caliphate".
Russia meanwhile delivered warplanes to aid Baghdad in a crisis said to rival Iraq's brutal sectarian war of 2006-2007, with more than 1,000 killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in a matter of weeks.