In pictures: Iraqis flee Mosul as militants take control

It followed four days of heavy fighting in Mosul and the border province of Nineveh around it. Reuters

The government of Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki has asked parliament to declare a state of emergency that would give him extraordinary powers to tackle the crisis. Reuters

Thousands of families fleeing from Mosul, one of the great historic cities of the Middle East, arrive at a checkpoint in outskirts of Arbil on June 10, 2014. Reuters

‘We have lost Mosul,’ said a colonel at a local military command centrr. ‘It’s a total collapse of the security forces.’ Reuters

The fall of Mosul, a largely Sunni Arab city after years of ethnic and sectarian fighting, deals a serious blow to Baghdad’s efforts to fight Sunni militants. Azad Lashkari /Reuters

Iraqi police, military and security officials said the insurgents, armed with anti-aircraft weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, had taken over almost all police and army checkpoints in and around Mosul early on Tuesday. Safin Hamed/AFP Photo

The ISIL have regained ground and momentum in Iraq over the past year, taking Fallujah and parts of Ramadi in the desert west of Baghdad at the start of the year. Safin Hamed/ AFP Photo

‘Mosul now is like hell. It’s in flames and death is everywhere,’ said Amina Ibrahim, who was leaving with her children. Her husband had been killed in 2013 in a bombing. Reuters

Control of Anbar province and Mosul in the north would help ISIL and its allies consolidate control along the barely populated frontier with Syria, where they are fighting President Bashar Al Assad, an ally of Shiite Iran. Reuters

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant seized control of the Iraqi city of Mosul on Tuesday, putting security forces to flight in a spectacular show of strength against the Shiite-led Baghdad government. Thousands of residents are fleeing the second-largest city in Iraq as the crisis deepens.