Iraq says it has intensified a counter-offensive against Sunni rebels who have taken control of large parts of the country.
The rebels, led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have seized one entire province and parts of three others, since they launched their offensive last week.
The US has responded to the crisis by sending a carrier strike group to the Gulf, led by the George WH Bush aircraft carrier, as Iran warned against any intervention in Iraq.
Iraqi security forces had collapsed in face of the initial onslaught, with many abandoning their vehicles and weapons caches to the rebels
Iraqi commanders said the army had started to push back Sunni rebels and that soldiers had recaptured two towns north of Baghdad.
Attempts to subdue the uprising will be bolstered by a flood of civilian volunteers, encouraged by a call to arms by the country’s leading Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
The government echoed the call, asking all military aged males to sign up to fight the rebels.
A centre for new recruits in Khales, in central Iraq, was hit by mortar fire on Sunday, killing six people including three soldiers, the AFP news agency reported.
Iran has warned that any “foreign military involvement in Iraq” would only complicate the crisis.
“Iraq has the capacity and necessary preparations for the fight against terrorism and extremism,” said foreign ministry spokesman Marzieh Afkham, the ISNA news agency reported.
“The people and government of Iraq will be able to neutralise this conspiracy,” Afkham said.
The foreign ministry’s comments come a day after the president, Hassan Rouhani, said that Iran had not been asked for help by its neighbour.
