says the declaration harks back to the rise of Islam<\/a>, when the Prophet Muhammad’s followers conquered vast territories in the Middle Ages.<\/p>\nThe Sunni-Shia split has its origins in a dispute over the succession to Muhammad.<\/p>\n
Isis said the Islamic state would extend from Aleppo in northern Syria to Diyala province in eastern Iraq.<\/p>\n
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group said, would become the leader of the state and would be known as “Caliph Ibrahim”.<\/p>\n
In the recording, the rebels also demanded that all Muslims “pledge allegiance” to the new ruler and “reject democracy and other garbage from the West”.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Iraqi government jets struck at rebel positions and clashes broke out in various parts of Tikrit, witnesses and officials said.<\/p>\n
“The security forces are advancing from different areas”, Lt-Gen Qassem Atta told journalists. “There are ongoing clashes.”<\/p>\n
Troops had reportedly pulled back to the nearby town of Dijla as Saturday’s initial offensive met stiff resistance.<\/p>\n
The heavy fighting over the two days caused many casualties on both sides, eyewitnesses and journalists told the BBC.<\/p>\n
Insurgents were reported to have shot down a helicopter and captured the pilot.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the creation of an independent Kurdish state in response to gains made by Sunni insurgents in Iraq.<\/p>\n
In a speech in Tel Aviv, he said the Kurds were “a nation of fighters and have proved political commitment and are worthy of independence”.<\/p>\n
The Kurds have long striven for an independent state but they remain divided between Syria and Turkey, Iran and Iraq.<\/p>\n
The international community, including neighbouring Turkey and the US, remains opposed to the breakup of Iraq.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jihadist militant group Isis has said it is establishing a caliphate, or Islamic state, on the territories it controls in Iraq and Syria. It also proclaimed the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as caliph and “leader for Muslims everywhere”. Setting up a state governed under strict Islamic law has long been a goal of many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":28623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-28622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28622\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}