US aircraft carrier sent to Gulf amid Iraq Islamist insurgency

US defence secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the USS George HW Bush from the northern Arabian Sea as president Barack Obama considered possible military options for Iraq.

Mr Hagel’s Press secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby, said the move will give Mr Obama additional flexibility if military action were required to protect American citizens and interests in Iraq.

Accompanying the carrier will be the guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea and the guided-missile destroyer USS Truxtun.

The ships, which carry Tomahawk missiles that could reach Iraq, were expected to complete their move into the Persian Gulf by the end of the day. The George HW Bush’s fighter jets could also easily reach Iraq.

Militants with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) have captured large swathes of territory north of Baghdad.

Their advance on the capital was sending food prices dramatically higher and prompting tighter security in the city of seven million people.

Amid sectarian strife between Sunni and Shia citizens, prime minister Nouri al-Maliki called for unity of all Iraqis. A Shia, Mr al-Maliki is widely resented by Sunnis for his perceived sectarian policies.

Mr Kerry told Zebari that the US was emphasising with the international community as well as those in the region the threat posed by Isis and the importance of coming to the aid of Iraq.

Meanwhile, Isis has posted pictures that appear to show its fighters shooting dead dozens of captured Iraqi soldiers in a province north of the capital, Baghdad.

The pictures on a militant website appear to show masked fighters loading the captives on to flatbed trucks before forcing them to lie face-down in a shallow ditch with their arms tied behind their backs.

The final images appear to show the bodies of the captives soaked in blood after being 
shot.

Captions say the killings were to avenge the death of an Isil commander, Abdul-Rahman al-Beilawy, whose death was reported by both the government and Isil shortly before the al-Qaida splinter group captured Iraq’s second largest city Mosul and Saddam Hussein’s home town of Tikrit in a lightning offensive.

Iraq’s top military spokesman, Lt Gen Qassim al-Moussawi, confirmed the pictures’ authenticity yesterday and said he was aware of cases of mass murder of captured Iraqi soldiers in areas held by Isil.

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay warned on Friday of “murder of all kinds” and other war crimes in Iraq, and said the number killed in recent days 
may run into the hundreds, while the wounded could approach 1,000. Speaking in Geneva, she said her office had received reports that militants rounded up and killed Iraqi soldiers as well as 17 civilians in a single street in Mosul.

Her office heard of “summary executions and extrajudicial killings” after ISIL militants overran Iraqi cities and towns, the statement said.

Elsewhere, a car bomb exploded in central Baghdad, killing 10 and leaving 21 others injured.

The city has seen an escalation in suicide and car bombings in recent months, mostly targeting Shiite neighbourhoods or security forces.

Tackling threat of Islamist advance: Page 11.