BAGHDAD — In a stunning assault that exposed Iraq’s eroding central authority, al-Qaida-inspired militants overran much of the second-largest city of Mosul on Tuesday, seizing government buildings, pushing out security forces and capturing military vehicles as thousands of residents fled.
The rampage by the black-banner-waving insurgents was a heavy defeat for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as he tries to hold on to power, and highlighted the growing strength of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
The group has been advancing in Iraq and neighboring Syria.
This year, Islamic State fighters took control of Fallujah in western Iraq, and government forces have been unable to take it back.
Mosul is a much bigger, more strategic prize. The city and surrounding Ninevah province, which is on the doorstep of Iraq’s relatively prosperous Kurdish region, are a major export route for Iraqi oil and a gateway to Syria.
“This isn’t Fallujah. This isn’t a place you can just cordon off and forget about,” said Michael Knights, a regional security analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “It’s essential to Iraq.”
