Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has forced several security officers to step aside on Tuesday – including Staff Lieutenant General Mahdi al-Gharawi, the top commander for the northern province of Nineveh, the first to fall in the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) militant offensive.

Another senior army officer will face court-martial for abandoning their “professional and military duty,” Maliki said in a statement read on state television.

One of the commanders, Hidayat Abdulraheem, fled a battle and would be referred to the military court to be tried in absentia, he added.

Scores dead

Government troops said they had thwarted an insurgent attempt to seize Baquba, the capital of Diyala province north of Baghdad on Tuesday. Officials said militants briefly held areas of Baquba, before taking control of a large area of Tal Afar, a Shiite-majority town in the north.

Officials and locals reported that 44 prisoners, mostly members of ISIS, were killed at a police station in Baquba when an attempt by militants to free them failed. There are conflicting accounts on how they died.

In Tal Afar, militants have taken control of most of the town, but pockets of resistance remain, the AFP news agency reported. Soldiers, police and armed residents held onto parts of the airport, according to Nineveh provincial council deputy chief Nureddin Qabakan.

The Baiji oil refinery north of Baghdad has been shut down, officials said, adding that foreign workers have been evacuated. Reports suggest the compound is still being held by elite government troops, while the nearby town fell to ISIS fighters.

US deploys troops

Washington plans to deploy up to 275 military personnel to protect the US embassy in Baghdad. The troops will be tasked with providing support and security for employees at the consulate. The deployment is the first time the US has sent troops to Iraq since withdrawing forces from the country in 2011.

“This force is deploying for the purpose of protecting US citizens and property, if necessary, and is equipped for combat,” US President Barack Obama said in a letter to Congress lawmakers on Monday. “This force will remain in Iraq until the security situation becomes such that it is no longer needed.”

Militants from ISIS are moving towards the Iraqi capital after a week-long offensive that has overrun swathes of the country to within 60 kilometers (37 miles) of Baghdad.

The ISIS insurgents, who launched their lightening assault on June 9, have since captured Mosul, a city of over two million inhabitants, and a large area of land north of the capital.

jlw/jr (Reuters, AFP, AP, dpa)