<p>Iraq's premier fired several top security commanders in a major shake-up as fighting approached Baghdad in a militant onslaught that the UN warned risked breaking up the country.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Washington deployed some 275 military personnel to protect its embassy in Baghdad, the first time it has publicly bolstered the mission's security.<br /><br />And it was also mulling air strikes against the militants, who are led by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) but include loyalists of now-executed Sunni Arab dictator Saddam Hussein.<br /><br />A relative calm in Baghdad was shattered by a string of bombings that left 17 people dead, while the bodies of 18 soldiers and police were found near the city of Samarra, shot in the head and chest.<br /><br />More than a week after insurgents launched their lightning assault, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki dismissed several senior officers, including the commander for the northern province of Nineveh, yesterday.<br /><br />Maliki also ordered that one of them face court-martial for desertion.<br /><br />The dismissals came after soldiers and police fled en masse as insurgents swept into Nineveh's capital Mosul, a city of two million, abandoning their vehicles and uniforms.<br /><br />As officials trumpet a counter-offensive, doubts are growing that Iraq's security forces can hold back the tide.<br /><br />However Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said Iraqi troops, with help from Shiite volunteers, were "stiffening their resistance" around Baghdad.<br /><br />"It certainly appears as if they have the will to defend the capital," he said.<br /><br />After taking Mosul, militants captured a major chunk of mainly Sunni Arab territory stretching towards the capital.<br /><br />The offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and sent jitters through world oil markets as the militants have advanced ever nearer to Baghdad, leaving the Shiite-led government in disarray.<br /><br />Officials said yesterday that militants briefly held parts of the city of Baquba, just 60 kilometres from the capital.<br /><br />They also took control of most of Tal Afar, a strategic Shiite-majority town between Mosul and the border with Syria, where ISIL fighters are engaged in that country's three-year-old civil war.<br /><br />The overnight attack on Baquba, which was pushed back by security forces but left 44 prisoners dead at a police station, marked the closest the fighting has come to the capital.</p>
<p>Iraq's premier fired several top security commanders in a major shake-up as fighting approached Baghdad in a militant onslaught that the UN warned risked breaking up the country.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Washington deployed some 275 military personnel to protect its embassy in Baghdad, the first time it has publicly bolstered the mission's security.<br /><br />And it was also mulling air strikes against the militants, who are led by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) but include loyalists of now-executed Sunni Arab dictator Saddam Hussein.<br /><br />A relative calm in Baghdad was shattered by a string of bombings that left 17 people dead, while the bodies of 18 soldiers and police were found near the city of Samarra, shot in the head and chest.<br /><br />More than a week after insurgents launched their lightning assault, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki dismissed several senior officers, including the commander for the northern province of Nineveh, yesterday.<br /><br />Maliki also ordered that one of them face court-martial for desertion.<br /><br />The dismissals came after soldiers and police fled en masse as insurgents swept into Nineveh's capital Mosul, a city of two million, abandoning their vehicles and uniforms.<br /><br />As officials trumpet a counter-offensive, doubts are growing that Iraq's security forces can hold back the tide.<br /><br />However Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said Iraqi troops, with help from Shiite volunteers, were "stiffening their resistance" around Baghdad.<br /><br />"It certainly appears as if they have the will to defend the capital," he said.<br /><br />After taking Mosul, militants captured a major chunk of mainly Sunni Arab territory stretching towards the capital.<br /><br />The offensive has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and sent jitters through world oil markets as the militants have advanced ever nearer to Baghdad, leaving the Shiite-led government in disarray.<br /><br />Officials said yesterday that militants briefly held parts of the city of Baquba, just 60 kilometres from the capital.<br /><br />They also took control of most of Tal Afar, a strategic Shiite-majority town between Mosul and the border with Syria, where ISIL fighters are engaged in that country's three-year-old civil war.<br /><br />The overnight attack on Baquba, which was pushed back by security forces but left 44 prisoners dead at a police station, marked the closest the fighting has come to the capital.</p>