LATEST: Claim — Islamic State Tells Mosul Residents to Convert, Pay Tax, or Flee

The extent of this week’s failure of Iraqi forces to regain Tikrit, captured by insurgents on June 11, is becoming clear.

Residents have spoken of the withdrawal of Iraqi troops and Shia militias to a base south of the city after insurgents drew in the attackers and ambushed them with heavy machine-gun and mortar fire from insurgent positions.

A fighter spoke of the “doors of hell” being opened as troops prepared to raise the Iraqi flag over Government buildings: “The bullets rained on our heads from everywhere, the suicide bombers were throwing themselves from the windows and detonated themselves in the air.”

Volunteers were hit especially hard as they were “deeply vulnerable and unable to protect themselves” in the hasty retreat. “Everyone was evacuating his comrade,” the fighter said.

The push by Iraqi forces ended when the lone support helicopter ran out of fuel.

The defeat is the second failure by Iraqi forces this month to regain Tikrit, lost a day after insurgent captured Iraq’s second city of Mosul. It reinforces the assessment of intelligence officials and analysts that, while the Iraqi defense forces have regrouped enough to protect Baghdad and nearby areas, they are unlikely to mount a successful counter-offensive to reclaim the cities lost in western and northern Iraq since the turn of the year.

Claim: Islamic State Tells Mosul Residents to Convert, Pay Tax, or Flee

Multiple sources are claiming that a document signed by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has set out an ultimatum to residents of Mosul:

Did Islamic State Really Seize $430 Million from Mosul Banks?

Writing in the Financial Times, Borzou Daragahi casts doubt on the widely-spread story that the Islamic State took $430 million from banks in Mosul when insurgents captured the city last month.

Iraqi bankers told Daragahi, “Nothing has been removed from the premises of any banks, not even a piece of paper.”

The Governor of Nineveh Province, Atheel al-Nujaifi, also denied the claim, and Daragahi notes that there has never been a witness account of the supposed theft.