... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn...
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According to bitter Iraqi footsoldiers, their commanders slipped away in the night rather than mount a defence of the city.
One said: 'Our leaders betrayed us. The commanders left the military behind. When we woke up, all the leaders had left.'
Last night Barack Obama
I am the change that you seek...
said America would help with 'short-term immediate actions… militarily' to push back the bad boys, but ruled out sending troops.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britannia would not get involved militarily because Iraq was now a democracy.
Iraqi prime minister
Nouri al-Maliki... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party. Maliki imposed order on Basra wen the Shiites were going nuts, but has proven incapable of dealing with al-Qaeda's Sunni insurgency. Reelected to his third term in 2014...
vowed: 'We are not going to allow this to carry on, regardless of the price. We are getting ready. We are organising.'
As the situation spiralled out of control, even Iran was said to have deployed two battalions from its Revolutionary Guard to help the Iraqi government retake Tikrit.
The development was likely to enrage Washington, which has been steadfast in its determination for Storied Baghdad not to cosy up to Tehran.
It also emerged that members of Saddam's old guard were joining the insurrection. Fighters loyal to his disbanded Baath Party were said to be actively supporting the rebels. ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham but has also been referenced as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.