Al-Qaeda renegades seized Saddam Hussein’s home town yesterday as they swept towards Baghdad from Syria, leaving the Iraqi government paralysed and the West rushing to supply it with arms.
In a lightning surge, fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Isis) overran Tikrit, the former stronghold of the late Iraqi dictator and the second provincial capital to fall in as many days.
Half a million people were driven from their homes in Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, on Tuesday. Yesterday Isis, a bloodthirsty Syria-based terrorist group which counts hundreds of British jihadists among its ranks, took hostages, freed prisoners and used Twitter to boast of its gains.
The insurgency marks a defining moment in the unravelling of Iraq since the departure of American