Kurdish Peshmerga forces with US air cover started to drive back ISIS from Erbil—but Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's refusal to step down is driving Sunnis into the arms of the jihadists.
Egypt called for an "Arab Alliance" to halt an ISIS advance on the Gulf States, as US air-strikes hit ISIS positions near Sinjar. Obama said there is no "timetable" for the strikes to end.
US jets and drones carried out air-strikes outside Erbil in an effort to drive back the ISIS advance on the Kurdish regional capital, while Iraqi warplanes struck near Mosul.
In authorizing US air-strikes in northern Iraq, President Obama invoked the responsibility to protect the Yazidis from ISIS and avert a potential "genocide."
The Kurdish Regional Government appeals to Obama for arms to fight ISIS—while Baghdad demands the Kurds return arms seized from its own disintegrating national army.
Iraq's government persuaded a US judge to order the seizure of $100 million of oil in a tanker anchored off Galveston that it claims was illegally pumped in Kurdistan.
The ISIS militants that have seized Mosul are engaged in a campaign of cultural cleansing—targeting not only the citiy's inhabitants, but its artistic and historical treasures.
Fighting erupted between ISIS and militants of the Naqshbandi Sufi Order in Kirkuk governorate, as the Sunni rebel coalition that has seized a third of Iraq starts to fray.
Iraq's contested northern city of Kirkuk was taken by Kurdish forces after being abandoned by the army—while the ISIS offensive is halted just 75 miles outside Baghdad.
An estimated half a million people have fled Iraq's second largest city, Mosul, since it was seized by ISIS forces—who have since taken Tikrit and are advancing on Baghdad.
Workers in several Iranian industrial centers marched on May Day in defiance of official attempts to shut them down, protesting labor repression and non-payment of wages.
Iraq's oil production surged to its highest level in over 30 years last month—as insurgent and terrorist attacks claim more lives than at any time since 2007.
