Assaults on potent symbols of Iranian ideology, claimed by Isis, will stoke tensions with Saudi Arabia, Gulf states and Trump 
 
 Consequences of attacks in Tehran will be felt around the world 
 
 In targeting the Iranian parliament and the tomb of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the terrorists who went on a lethal rampage in Tehran on Wednesday chose the two most potent symbols of the 1979 revolution. 
 
 For ordinary Tehranis, comparatively safe in recent years from such outrages, the attacks are deeply shocking. 
 
 The apparently coordinated assaults have been blamed by Iran’s hardline Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Saudi Arabia and, whatever the truth of the allegation, they are likely to have a big political impact far beyond Iran, stoking tensions with the US, Saudi Arabia and the Sunni Muslim monarchies of the Gulf. 
 
 Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility – if true, it would mean the militant group has finally succeeded in importing its divisive brand of random terror into the home of its principal Shia Muslim adversary. 
 
 Iran: 12 dead as Islamic State claims attacks on parliament and shrine Read more 
 
 The mausoleum where Khomeini was laid to rest almost exactly 28 years ago, on 6 June 1989, is an enormous complex dominating the skyline south of Tehran. Its cavernous halls are visited by tens of thousands of Iranians each year, who treat it as a shrine. Unlike the fortress-like Majlis (parliament) building in the centre of the city, security is light. That will change now. 
 
 For Iranians, the attack on Khomeini’s tomb is the equivalent of somebody trying to blow up the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. If the Isis claim of responsibility proves truthful, this will be the first time the group has successfully struck in the heart of Iran, although it has reportedly tried several times in the recent past. 
 
 Isis is at war, ideologically and militarily, with Iranian forces and allies in Syria and Iraq. In a video released in March, it vowed to “conquer Iran and restore it to the Sunni Muslim nation as it was before”. The jihadis claim that Iran’s clerical leaders, and their royal Persian predecessors, have persecuted Sunnis for centuries. 
 
 Isis has natural allies among militant groups in Iran’s restive south-eastern Sistan-Baluchistan province, which has a large Sunni population. In 2010, Sunni extremists linked to the Jundallah network killed 39 people at a mosque in the province. Minority Kurdish groups and ethnic Arabs also have a history of small-scale attacks in the north-west and south-west respectively. 
 
 Wednesday’s atrocities will be set against the backdrop of the anticipated collapse of Isis’s self-declared caliphate, as Iranian-backed Iraqi and Syrian army forces, plus US and British-backed Kurdish militias, close in on its Mosul and Raqqa strongholds. 
 
 In response to this pressure, Isis has called on its followers to take the fight to its enemies wherever they live. Recent terror attacks in Manchester, Kabul, Baghdad, Marawi in the southern Philippines and London may fit this emerging pattern of displaced activity by Isis followers. 
 
 Conservative Iranian leaders and commentators will certainly follow the IRGC’s lead and discern the hand of Saudi Arabia – and, by association, that of the US president, Donald Trump – in Wednesday’s attacks. 
 
 Well-documented covert efforts by George W Bush’s administration in the 2000s to destabilise Iran by funding militant internal opposition groups are not forgotten in Tehran. Nor is unofficial, on-off American support for the Mujahedin e-Khalq, or People’s Mujahadin of Iran, a group formerly backed by Saddam Hussein that was responsible for numerous armed attacks inside Iran. 
 
 US officials scramble to limit Donald Trump's diplomatic damage over Qatar tweets Read more 
 
 The question now is whether Trump’s overt hostility is encouraging a repeat of past destabilisation efforts, directly or indirectly. Overturning the previous US president Barack Obama’s policy of limited engagement, Trump launched a blistering attack on Iran last month. Speaking during a visit to Riyadh, he demanded Iran’s international isolation, claiming Tehran was the world’s main exporter of “the fires of sectarian conflict and terror”. 
 
 His host, King Salman, accuses Iran of “spearheading global terrorism”. Egged on by Israel, Trump has threatened to tear up Obama’s landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. 
 
 He trumpeted a big arms deal with the Saudis. And this week he threw his support behind Riyadh’s diplomatic and commercial ostracism of Qatar, which almost alone among Gulf Arab states has tried to keep on good terms with Iran. This has led regional politicians to warn of imminent war. 
 
 Iran’s leaders reject Trump’s accusations out of hand. They say Riyadh is Isis’s biggest inspiration and supporter, and point out that Iran and the US are on the same side fighting the jihadis in Iraq. 
 
 Unlike the autocratic Gulf regimes, Iran also has a quasi-democratic political system, with an elected parliament and president, that confounds the “sponsor of terrorism” image. This awkward fact seems to enrage Trump, the Saudis and Isis in equal measure. ||||| U.S. President Trump speaks during an event announcing the Air Traffic Control Reform Initiative at the White House in Washington Thomson Reuters President Donald Trump released a statement Wednesday on the terrorist group ISIS' first attack in Iran, appearing to blame the country for "falling victim to the evil they promote." 
 
 Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Iranian parliament and the Mausoleum of Ayatollah Khomeini in Tehran on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people in a twin assault that Iran's Revolutionary Guards blamed on regional rival Saudi Arabia. ISIS claimed responsibility and released a video purporting to show gunmen inside the parliament building. 
 
 "We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times," Trump said in the statement. "We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote." 
 
 The US has designated Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism. 
 
 Iran provides arms and funding to some terrorist groups, including the Shia group Hezbollah. Iran has also been expanding its influence throughout the Middle East and has aligned itself with embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been accused of war crimes as he fights to maintain control over his country. 
 
 Trump has taken a hard line on Iran and often condemns the deal the Obama administration cut with the country to curb its nuclear program. 
 
 The ISIS attacks there took place at a particularly charged time after Saudi Arabia and other Sunni powers cut ties with Qatar on Monday, accusing it of backing Tehran and militant groups. 
 
 ISIS has regularly threatened Iran, one of the powers leading the fight against the militants' forces in neighboring Iraq and, beyond that, Syria. 
 
 Reuters contributed to this report. ||||| Police officers control the scene, around of shrine of late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, after an assault by several attackers in Tehran, just outside Tehran, Iran. 
 
 Armed militants, some apparently dressed as women and equipped with suicide vests, stormed the Parliament building in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday morning around 10:30 a.m. About a half-hour later, another group of attackers rushed the mausoleum of the Ayatollah Khomeini. The assailants went on a murderous spree, firing on people, holding hostages, and blowing themselves up with explosives. The twin terror attacks — rare in the tightly controlled Iran, with its elite security forces — left 12 people dead and more than 40 wounded. Iran’s intelligence ministry said it had arrested another “team” plotting a third attack, says Reuters. 
 
 An undercover Iranian policeman (L) holds a weapon outside the Iranian parliament in the capital Tehran on June 7, 2017, during an attack on the complex. Photo: AFP/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 ISIS immediately claimed responsibility for the rampage, and released a graphic video that was allegedly filmed by one of the attackers. If confirmed, this attack would be the jihadist organization’s first in Iran, according to The Guardian. The terrorist group adheres to a bastardized version of Sunni Islam, and it considers Shiite Muslims — Iran’s majority religion — apostates. 
 
 Iran’s revolutionary guard, however, accused Saudi Arabia of being behind the attack. “This terrorist attack happened only a week after the meeting between the U.S. president and the backward leaders who support terrorists,” a statement from the revolutionary guard read, indicating Trump and Saudi Arabia. The statement added that “the fact that Islamic State has claimed responsibility proves that they were involved in the brutal attack,” an insinuation that Saudi Arabia is tied to the Sunni extremist group. 
 
 An Iranian policeman holds a weapon as he stands by a window at the Iranian parliament in the capital Tehran on June 7, 2017, during an attack on the complex. Photo: AFP/AFP/Getty Images 
 
 Iran’s accusation comes at a particularly tense time in the region. Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-majority nations cut diplomatic ties with Qatar this week, over its alleged “embrace” of radical groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS. Yet Qatar’s recognition and willingness to work with Iran clearly factored into that decision to sever relations. President Trump, visiting the Saudi Arabian capital on his first foreign trip, made it clear that isolating Iran was a shared goal between the U.S. and its Sunni allies in the region. 
 
 The Saudi foreign minister denied that Saudi extremists were involved in the attack, but Wednesday’s attack adds fuel — bolstered by Trump’s pointed statements against Iran — to the volatile regional rivalry. As Reuters points out, it may also roil tensions within Iran between the more moderate forces — which claimed victory in the recent reelection of President Hassan Rouhani — and conservative hard-liners. ||||| LONDON (Reuters) - Suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Iranian parliament and Ayatollah Khomeini’s mausoleum in Tehran on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people in an unprecedented assault that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards blamed on regional rival Saudi Arabia. 
 
 Islamic State claimed responsibility and threatened more attacks against Iran’s majority Shi’ite population, seen by the hardline Sunni militants as heretics. 
 
 Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted: “Terror-sponsoring despots threaten to bring the fight to our homeland. Proxies attack what their masters despise most: the seat of democracy.” 
 
 He did not explicitly blame any country but the tweet appeared to refer to comments made by Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud, in May, saying that that Riyadh would bring “the battle” for regional influence to Iran. 
 
 Sunni Saudi Arabia denied any involvement in the Tehran attacks, but the assault further fuels tensions between Riyadh and Tehran as they vie for control of the Gulf and influence in the wider Islamic world. It comes days after Riyadh and other Sunni Muslim powers cut ties with Qatar, accusing it of backing Tehran and militant groups. 
 
 They were the first attacks claimed by Islamic State inside the tightly controlled Shi’ite Muslim country, one of the powers leading the fight against IS forces in nearby Iraq and Syria. 
 
 The deputy head of Iran’s National Security Council, Reza Seifollhai, told state TV late on Wednesday that the attackers were people from Iran who had joined Islamic State. Iranian police said they had arrested five suspects 
 
 Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: “These fireworks have no effect on Iran. They will soon be eliminated.” 
 
 “They are too small to affect the will of the Iranian nation and its officials,” state TV quoted him saying. 
 
 The powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accused Riyadh of being behind the attacks and vowed to seek revenge. 
 
 “This terrorist attack happened only a week after the meeting between the U.S. president (Donald Trump) and the (Saudi) backward leaders who support terrorists. The fact that Islamic State has claimed responsibility proves that they were involved in the brutal attack,” a Guards statement said. 
 
 Trump said in a statement that he prayed for the victims of the attacks but added that “states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote.” The U.S. State Department and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres both condemned the attacks. 
 
 Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said he did not know who was responsible for the attacks and said there was no evidence Saudi extremists were involved. 
 
 DRESSED AS WOMEN 
 
 Attackers dressed as women burst through parliament’s main entrance, deputy interior minister Mohammad Hossein Zolfaghari said, according to the Tasnim news agency. One of them detonated a suicide vest, he said. 
 
 On a video released by the IS news agency Amaq a man purportedly inside the parliament says in Arabic: “Oh God, thank you. [Gunshots]. Do you think we will leave? No! We will remain, God willing.” 
 
 Police helicopters circled over parliament, with snipers on its rooftop. Within five hours, four attackers were dead and the incident was over, Iranian media said. 
 
 “I was inside the parliament when shooting happened. Everyone was shocked and scared. I saw two men shooting randomly,” said one journalist at the scene. 
 
 Soon after the assault on parliament began, a bomber detonated a suicide vest near the shrine of the Islamic Republic’s revered founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, a few kilometers south of the city, Zolfaghari said. 
 
 A second attacker was shot dead, he said. The shrine is a main destination for tourists and religious pilgrims. 
 
 “The terrorists had explosives strapped to them and suddenly started to shoot around,” said the shrine’s overseer, Mohammadali Ansari. 
 
 By late evening, deputy interior minister Zolfaghari put the death toll at 13, with 43 wounded. 
 
 Members of Iranian forces take cover during an attack on the Iranian parliament in central Tehran, Iran, June 7, 2017. Tasnim News Agency/Handout via REUTERS 
 
 The Intelligence Ministry said security forces had arrested another “terrorist team” planning a third attack. The National Security Council’s Seifollhai said Iran had foiled 58 similar attacks, without specifying a time period. 
 
 REGIONAL ANIMOSITY 
 
 The attacks follow several weeks of heightened rhetorical animosity between Riyadh and Tehran. 
 
 In unusually blunt remarks on May 2, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is Saudi defense minister and a son of King Salman, said he would protect his country from what he called Iranian efforts to dominate the Muslim world. 
 
 Any struggle for influence between the Sunni Muslim kingdom and the revolutionary Shi’ite theocracy ought to take place “inside Iran, not in Saudi Arabia,” he said without elaborating. 
 
 The next day Iran accused Saudi Arabia of seeking tension in the region, saying the prince had made “destructive” comments and it was proof that Riyadh supported terrorism. 
 
 The attacks could also exacerbate tensions in Iran between newly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani, who positions himself as a reformer, and his rivals among hardline clergy and the Revolutionary Guards. 
 
 But Rouhani said Iran would be more united and more determined in the fight against regional terrorism and violence. 
 
 “We will prove once again that we will crush the enemies’ plots with more unity and more strength,” he said. 
 
 In an appeal for unity, Rouhani’s chief of staff, Hamid Aboutalebi, took to Twitter to praise the security services. 
 
 “Applause to the power and firmness of our revolutionary guards, Basij (volunteer militia), police and security forces,” he wrote. 
 
 However, two senior government officials, who asked not to be named, said the attacks might prompt a blame game. 
 
 Slideshow (23 Images) 
 
 “They (hardliners) are very angry and will use every opportunity to grow in strength to isolate Rouhani,” said one. The other said the attacks would push Iran toward “a harsher regional policy”. 
 
 Militant attacks are rare in Tehran and other major cities although two Sunni militant groups, Jaish al-Adl and Jundallah, have been waging a deadly insurgency, mostly in remote areas, for almost a decade. 
 
 Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province, in the southeast on the borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to the Balouch minority and has long been a hotbed of Sunni insurgents fighting the Shi’ite-led republic. 
 
 Last year Iranian authorities said they had foiled a plot by Sunni militants to bomb targets in Tehran and other cities during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. ||||| Gunmen and bombers stunned Iran on Wednesday when they stormed parliament and the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, leaving 12 people dead in what appear to be the first ISIS attacks in the country. 
 
 After a string of ISIS-claimed attacks targeting Western countries, many are left wondering — why would the group suddenly target Iran? 
 
 The World reached out to William McCants, author of "The ISIS Apocalypse" and director of the Project on US Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution, to get some insight. 
 
 How do ISIS and its adherents view the Islamic Republic of Iran? 
 
 In the first instance, they see it as a religious competitor. Iran is dominated by [Shiite Muslims], one of the two major sects of Islam, and it's a sect that ISIS views as a rival. There is also a strategic competition, of course, with Iran for control in Iraq. ISIS has been fighting Iranian forces off and on since 2006, when it was founded. And it has long wanted to carry out an attack inside of Iran, but could not do so because al-Qaeda told it "no" in the early years. And once ISIS split from al-Qaeda, it may not have had the assets to do so. 
 
 Talk a little more about the religious rivalry. Isn't it true that in the mindset of ISIS, the Shiite [also called Shia] Muslims are not just rivals, but also apostates? 
 
 That's right. Sunni jihadists in general have a dim view of the Shia. They believe Shia leaders are apostates, there's a debate among jihadists as to whether the hoi polloi are apostates. For ISIS, they are certainly apostates — all of them. Ignorance of religion is no excuse, they would argue. Shia Muslims are all beyond the pale, and, in ISIS's view, worse than infidels like Jews and Christians, because these Shia, they argue, have made a choice to place themselves outside of true Islam, as they would see it. 
 
 ISIS is losing territory in Iraq and Syria, and even in its longtime stronghold of the Syrian city Raqqa. So, why would ISIS want to attack the regional power of Iran now? 
 
 On the face of it, it doesn't seem to make much sense. But there are a couple of reasons why. One is to, of course, punish Iran for its meddling in Iraq. Two, to force Iran to go all-in in Iraq, to commit even more forces and turn this into a major sectarian war. The thinking here being that, if this war is clearly divided along sectarian lines, ISIS would gain more support from the Sunni locals, who fear Iran. Another reason to carry out an attack like this would be to push the Iranian government into cracking down domestically on the Sunnis [inside Iran]. ISIS would hope in that instance that the crackdown would be wide-ranging and would create a lot of alienation among the Sunnis in Iran, and that they would then support ISIS's cause. 
 
 Another way to think about this is through the lens of recruitment and competition with al-Qaeda. ISIS used to be a part of al-Qaeda. They split in recent years. And they have been competing with one another for market share among global Sunni jihadists. ISIS has had trouble attracting recruits over the last year or so, because security has tightened and it's losing a lot of territory. So, it wants to retain momentum to show that it's still in the fight, and what better way to do that in the jihadist world than to carry out a strike in the heart of Iran, at two of its major symbols of power? In the same vein, this is part of a global series of attacks that have happened over the past few days, either inspired or directed by ISIS, that are also meant to show that the organization is still in the fight, can still recruit. It's the Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan. And during the same month last year, ISIS also carried out a high-profile series of attacks, probably toward the same end — to attract more recruits. So, while on the face of it, it doesn't look like a good idea to poke a bear like Iran, there can be other reasons to do it that are smart, at least from ISIS's perspective. 
 
 Is it your sense that ISIS had been trying to carry out an attack like this in Iran for some time? 
 
 We know from a series of internal ISIS and al-Qaeda documents that ISIS has wanted to carry out an attack in Iran for a long time. But its parent organization al-Qaeda discouraged it. That's because al-Qaeda has a logistics hub inside of Iran, and also has a number of people being held by the Iranian government. And al-Qaeda didn't want to lose either the hub or its people, so it said, "no." Once the two organizations split, then ISIS could of course pursue its designs to carry out an attack in Iran, but then it would have to build up its capability. ISIS has had a number of people — Sunnis from Iran — go fight for its organization in Iraq. And perhaps it's one of their members who carried out today's attack. We'll see about that. 
 
 So, after 2014, when ISIS split with al-Qaeda, it was probably a matter of lacking capability rather than any other reason why we haven't seen this kind of attack before. 
 
 What's significant about the two sites of today's attack in Tehran — at Iran's national parliament building, and the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini? 
 
 Well, the parliament is the heart, of course, of the Iranian government — its lawmaking body. And the shrine is the spiritual heart of Iran's revolutionary government. Khomeini was the founder of the republic, and some whispered that he was something even more, approaching messianic status. So this is an attack that went against both the heart of Iran's premier deliberative body, but also the spiritual heart of the revolution. 
 
 Last question, Will. What comes to mind in the aftermath of this attack when you think about what's at stake for the United States? 
 
 It's about demonstrating solidarity with any country that has been through an attack on innocent civilians. The US terrorist list is dominated by Sunni groups, but not exclusively. In the past, the US has designated groups [as terrorist organizations] that threatened Iran domestically that did not pose a threat to the US. I think it's important to uphold that principle. 
 
 This interview was condensed and edited for clarity. ||||| • Iraq crisis live: Isis attack Iraq's biggest oil refinery • US to send nearly 300 troops to Iraq as crisis escalates • Isis attack on Baquba, 37 miles from Baghdad, repelled overnight • Kurdish PM says return to pre-Isis attack Iraq 'impossible' • UK to reopen Iran embassy following talks over Iraq measures 
 
 00.50 We'll end our live covergae of developments in Iraq here for the night. Join us again in the morning here for more rolling reports and in the mean time you can visit our Iraq page for all the latest news, comment and analysis, including Ruth Sherlock 's dispatch from Carol Malouf near Tal Afar : 
 
 It was once the emblem of US military success in Iraq - the city where American forces defeated their adversaries twice. First they drove out the army of Saddam Hussein, and later the Islamist militants who rose up against the occupation. 
 
 Less than a decade later, the two US foes have joined forces to seize back Tal Afar, and the machine guns and armoured vehicles that American troops left behind to defend its new-found freedom are being used by the very insurgents they sought to defeat. 
 
 The arrival of the jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham in northern Iraq has brought on sectarian insurgency anew, and loyalists to the late Saddam Hussein have once again picked up their arms to fight. 
 
 23.40 Iraqi forces appear to be rallying and bolstering their defence of Baghdad in the face of the Sunni extremists - that's according to the Pentagonat least. 
 
 We also have reason to believe - certainly indications - that the Iraqi security forces are stiffening their resistance and their defense and are coalescing, particularly in and around Baghdad, and that's encouraging," spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said today. 
 
 With Iraqi troops now receiving help from Shiite volunteers, Kirby said "it certainly appears as if they have the will to defend the capital." 
 
 22.50 Washington remains open to more talks with Iran over the crisis in Iraq, but is far from following in Britain’s footsteps to renew diplomatic ties, a US official said today. 
 
 Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns had “met briefly” with Iranian officials on Monday in Vienna on the sidelines of nuclear talks with global powers, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed. 
 
 They discussed the need to support inclusivity in Iraq and the need to refrain from pressing a sectarian agenda,” she said. 
 
 “We’re open to continuing our engagement with the Iranians, just as we are engaging with other regional players on the threat posed by ISIL in Iraq.” 
 
 21.55 Iraqi Shi’ite and Sunni political leaders have made a joint call for national unity after a closed-door meeting was called in the wake of the recent sectarian violence. 
 
 The leaders, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi’ite, and Sunni Usama al-Nujaifi, the last speaker of parliament which dissolved this month, stood apart and listened as Maliki’s predecessor Ibrahim al-Jafaari called for “defending the state and protecting its sovereignty and dignity.” 
 
 They also called for avoiding sectarian grievances and forbade non-state actors from carrying weapons. 
 
 20.27 US congressional leaders are to meet President Barack Obama tomorrow in the White House to discuss the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, officials have said. 
 
 Democratic and Republican officials said that John Boehner, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, Harry Reid, the Senate Majority leader and Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader - will sit down with the president at 3 pm (8pm UK). 
 
 The meeting is "a part of (Obama's) ongoing consultations with congressional leadership on foreign policy issues, including the situation in Iraq," a White House official said. 
 
 Mr McConnell "asked the president to provide us with a strategy and a plan and it's his hope that those will be provided at the meeting," a McConnell aide told AFP. 
 
 19.25 Watch David Cameron's remarks on Isis, which he warned earlier today posed the "biggest threat" to British national security: 
 
 19.00 The Telegraph's Damien McElroy reports on the use of social media by Isis to advance its aims - you can read the full article here. 
 
 He writes: 
 
 Analysts believe that Isis’s savvy use of internet tools has help spread its reputation and drive recruitment. Stratfor, the US think tank, said that Isis used the hashtag #SykesPicotOver during the advance - referring to the 1916 deal between British and French officials to carve up the Middle East into respective zones of influence. 
 
 "Isis is making effective use of startling images depicting their operations, notably including mass executions of Iraqi soldiers in Tikrit last week. Their fearsome reputation, bolstered by such images, has translated into success on the battlefield, with Iraqi security forces fleeing strategic towns and cities rather than engage the militants directly," said Jordan Perry, an analyst at risk advisory company Maplecroft. "It is very likely that intelligence agencies in Europe, the US and elsewhere are monitoring the online chatter of Islamist groups – including Isis – very closely indeed." 
 
 18.10 Amid widespread reports of violence perpetrated by Sunni Islamist Isis and its allies, primarily directed at the Shia population, signs of reprisals against Sunnis have begun to emerge. 
 
 Police said pro-government Shia militia killed nearly four dozen detainees after insurgents tried to storm a jail in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad. Earlier, The Telegraph spoke to a resident of Tal Afar, who said two of his cousins had been killed in the massacre but claimed prison security guards were responsible. 
 
 A local morgue official told AP that many of the detainees had bullet wounds to the head and chest. 
 
 In Baghdad the bullet-riddled bodies of four men in their late 20s or early 30s, believed to be Sunnis, were found at different locations in the Shia neighborhood of Benouk, according to police and morgue officials. 
 
 17.00 The Telegraph's Ruth Sherlock is in Iraq, where she has been speaking to refugees from Tal Afar, the northern city which was seized by Isis yesterday. 
 
 One resident said that two of his cousins had been killed in the prison massacre. He works in military intelligence, but refused to give his name out of fear of reprisal. 
 
 My cousins are from Borgholieh village in the Tal Afar area. They and four others from this village were in the prison. 
 
 My two cousins were shot dead and I am told their bodies have been burned. 
 
 The prison is run by the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Unit - the special forces. 
 
 Suddenly the prisoners were told they would be free to go and they opened the doors: the security guards wanted to show that the prisoners had "fled". 
 
 Once they were running out of the prison they shot them in their backs. They used a PKC to gun them down. 
 
 All the dead are Sunnis. I heard they tried to burn their bodies after. A friend of mine gave me this information. He was there also. They shot him in the stomach but he managed to get away. He is now in Mosul with his family. 
 
 Isis supporters wave al-Qaeda flags in Mosul (AP) 
 
 16.50 British citizens and other nationals fighting alongside Islamist insurgents in Iraq and Syria pose the biggest threat to Britain's national security that exists today, David Cameron has said. 
 
 "No-one should be in any doubt that what we see in Syria and now in Iraq in terms of Isis is the most serious threat to Britain's security that there is today," Cameron told a joint news conference with Chinese premier Li Keqiang. 
 
 "The number of foreign fighters in that area, the number of foreign fighters including those from the UK who could try to return to the UK is a real threat to our country," he said. 
 
 Stefan Rousseau/ PA 
 
 16.42 Iraqi Shia volunteers who went to fight for Assad's regime against the mainly Sunni rebels are returning in droves to their homeland to join the battle against Isis, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said. 
 
 Many had volunteered to defend the Sayyida Zeinab mosque, a revered Shiite shrine in southeast Damascus, from rebels based in the outskirts of the Syrian capital. But in the wake of the Isis offensive the volunteers have begun heading home in response to a rallying cry by top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, according to the monitoring group. 
 
 Iraqi volunteers headed home from the Mleiha area, southeast of Damascus, it said. 
 
 Their positions were taken over by fighters of Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which has also intervened heavily alongside Assad's forces in Syria's civil war, Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. 
 
 "The Iraqi pro-Assad fighters' pullout from the Mleiha area was accompanied by a relative lull in the fighting around there," he told AFP. 
 
 "But that does not mean the regime has been left defenceless, as Hezbollah has deployed new troops to fill the gap." 
 
 Iraqi men flash victory signs as they leave the main recruiting centre to join the Iraqi army in Baghdad (AP) 
 
 16.19 Police in Iraq said a roadside bomb exploded in central Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least three people and wounding nine. 
 
 The blast took out a chunk of the pavement at the side of the busy road. Battered remains of market goods are strewn around. 
 
 Isis jihadists have pledged to seize the capital city, though they were repelled overnight in their attempt to take Baquba - at just 37 miles northeast of Baghdad, the closest they have so far come. 
 
 16.06 As the Isis offensive on Baghdad rages on, take a look at our updated Iraq crisis map (click to enlarge) to see where the latest frontline and fighting is taking place: 
 
 15.28 The contrast in the use of Twitter between the West's traditional foe Iran - whose president was pictured watching his country's World Cup opener in a tracksuit - and the Isis jihadists could not be more profound, writes Robert Tait, our Middle East Correspondent. 
 
 Hassan Rouhani cuts a benign, non-threatening figure as he watches the World Cup on television fortified with that most British of beverages – the cup of tea. 
 
 The image, posted on the Iranian president’s Twitter page, is a radical departure from the macabre yet similarly football-themed use of social media by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Isis) to show off its gruesome handiwork in Iraq. 
 
 The jihadist group, a relentless user of Twitter, posted pictures of atrocities committed in Iraq in recent days – including one resonant image of a group of men, one of whom is wearing a Manchester United shirt, herded together shortly before they are killed. 
 
 Mr Rouhani may not have been trying to score an international propaganda coup by having himself pictured watching Iran take on Nigeria wearing a T-shirt and track suit trousers – but he surely has done so. 
 
 <noframe>Twitter: Hassan Rouhani - Proud of our boys who secured our first point--hopefully the first of many more to come. <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23WorldCup2014" target="_blank">#WorldCup2014</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23TeamMelli" target="_blank">#TeamMelli</a> <a href="http://t.co/9pzyT1Dr3f" target="_blank">http://t.co/9pzyT1Dr3f</a></noframe> 
 
 15.00 Isis may enjoy backers in Saudi Arabia - and other Gulf kingdoms - but this does not mean the jihadist group enjoys the support of the kingdoms' rulers, says this blog in NOW magazine: 
 
 It’s unquestionably the case... that the Gulf monarchs make little if any real effort to prevent their more pious subjects from sending considerable sums of money to extremist outfits, including Isis. 
 
 But this is not the same as saying... that Isis is actively and deliberately sponsored as a matter of policy by the Saudis and other Gulf rulers and should be thought of as no more than a proxy created to advance Riyadh’s regional ambitions. 
 
 Quite to the contrary: Isis has long been at war with Saudi’s actual clients in Syria... 
 
 Isis spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani mocks the Kingdom [Saudi Arabia] as a “state which claims to be Islamic,” and denounces as traitors all factions “supported by the Saudis, America, and the infidels of the West.” 
 
 <noframe>Twitter: Michael Weiss - The KSA=ISIS crowd don't seem to know, consider or explain that ISIS wants to overthrow the Saudi government: <a href="https://t.co/4XQzv84qmQ" target="_blank">https://t.co/4XQzv84qmQ</a></noframe> 
 
 14.42 Proposed Western cooperation with Iran over a solution to the jihadist campaign in Iraq has caused plenty of controversy, especially in Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia. 
 
 Former British foreign secretary Jack Straw does appear to share those concerns, according to Damien McElroy, our Foreign Affairs Correspondent: 
 
 <noframe>Twitter: Damien McElroy - Jack Straw says <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23Iran" target="_blank">#Iran</a> is not a "serious adversary" and the restoration of ties would send a message to Saudi Arabia <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=hash&q=%23GSF" target="_blank">#GSF</a></noframe> 
 
 14.19 UNESCO has voiced its fears over threats to Iraq's cultural heritage amid the current violence, the worst in years as Isis jihadists overrun vast swathes of the country. 
 
 Destroying religious sites would amount to war crimes, the UN's cultural organisation warned. 
 
 "I call on all actors to refrain from any form of destruction of cultural heritage, including religious sites," General Irina Bokova, UNESCO direcotr, said in a statement. 
 
 After US forces invaded in 2003, at least 32,000 items were looted from 12,000 archeological sites across Iraq and 15,000 other items stolen from the National Museum. 
 
 A security officer walks through the Assyrian hall at the Iraqi National Museum (AFP/GETTY) 
 
 13.52 5,000 Iranians have pledged to defend Iraq's Shia Muslim holy sites against Isis extremists on the website harimshia.org. 
 
 Harishma was set up by a group naming itself the Popular Headquarters for the Defence of Shiite Shrines. 
 
 "Those who sign up are organised into units... and if the order is given by the supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei] they will go to Iraq to defend the sites," the harimshia.org page said. 
 
 13.39 Thousands of Shia Iraqis continue to flee the Isis offensive toward the relative safety of the Kurdish autonomous region in the country's northeast. 
 
 The below images are from Aski Kalak, a city midway between Mosul - Iraq's second city, seized by Isis last week - and the major Kurdish city of Erbil. 
 
 Displaced Iraqis queue to register at a temporary camp in Aski Kalak (AFP/GETTY) 
 
 13.25 Iran's role in the Iraq crisis and measures against Isis has picked up with the arrival in Iraq of the commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, Gen. Ghasem Soleimani. 
 
 Interestingly, the US government was notified in advanced of the visit by Soleimani. 
 
 Soleimani is no favourite of the Americans, having previously been linked with moves to organise Shia militias targetting US troops in Iraq after the 2003 invasion, as well as more recently providing assistance to Syria's president Bashar Assad. 
 
 Ghasem Soleimani (REX) 
 
 13.01 Saudi Arabia is "siding with terrorism", according to a strongly worded statement made by the Iraq cabinet. 
 
 AFP has this report on unverified claims made by the government of Iraq that Saudi Arabia is responsible for funding received by the Isis jihadists, and should be held responsible for the terrorists' actions: 
 
 Saudi Arabia should be held responsible for militant financing and crimes committed by insurgent groups in Iraq, the Baghdad government charged on Tuesday. 
 
 Comments from Riyadh indicates it is "siding with terrorism", the cabinet said in a statement issued by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office. 
 
 "We strongly condemn this stance," the statement read. 
 
 "We hold it (Saudi Arabia) responsible for what these groups are receiving in terms of financial and moral support." 
 
 It continued: "The Saudi government should be held responsible for the dangerous crimes committed by these terrorist groups." 
 
 The statement came just days after Saudi Arabia and Qatar blamed "sectarian" policies by Iraq's Shiite-led government against the Sunni Arab minority for the unrest that has swept the country. 
 
 The unrest "could not have taken place if it was not for the sectarian and exclusionary policies implemented in Iraq over the past years that threatened its stability and sovereignty," the Saudi government said in a statement. 
 
 In March, Maliki accused both Saudi Arabia and Qatar of supporting terrorism in Iraq. 
 
 12.19 At leat 44 prisoners being held at a police station were killed in the overnight Isis assault on Baquba, a city close to Baghdad, officials have said. 
 
 Accounts varied over whether they had been killed by jihadists carrying out the assault, or security forces trying to prevent them from escaping. 
 
 11.43 The Isis jihadists' attack on Baquba (see 09.25) overnight represents the closest that fighting has come to the capital Baghdad so far. 
 
 The assault on Baquba - 37 miles northeast of Baghdad - was repelled by security forces. 
 
 The jihadists have said they intend to march on Baghdad and the southern Shiite holy city of Karbala. 
 
 The swift advance of the militants has sparked international alarm, with UN envoy to Baghdad Nickolay Mladenov warning that Iraq's sovereignty is at stake. 
 
 "Right now, it's life-threatening for Iraq but it poses a serious danger to the region," Mladenov told AFP. 
 
 "Iraq faces the biggest threat to its sovereignty and territorial integrity" in years, he added. 
 
 Iraqi Shiite gunmen carry weapons during a demonstration in Baghdad's Shuala district (EPA) 
 
 11.32 The prime minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Nechirvan Barzani, has said it is "almost impossible" for Iraq to return to its pre-Isis offensive state. 
 
 The various factions - Iraqi Sunni and Shia as well as Kurdish - needed to "sit down and find a way to live together", but the country cannot stay together as it was, he told the BBC. 
 
 Isis has made major territorial gains since seizing Mosul last week, while the Kurds have also occupied key locations not previously part of their autonomous region, including Kirkuk, since the Iraqi army fled in the face of the Sunni jihadists' assault. 
 
 11.19 Video has emerged of hundreds of Shia volunteers in Baghdad signing up to join the fight against Islamic militants in Iraq. 
 
 The volunteers, who have pledged to join the nation's beleaguered security forces to battle against Sunni militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or Isis, gathered at the Federal Police Command headquarters in the Iraqi capital. 
 
 They then set off in a convoy of trucks and buses towards the front line. 
 
 10.55 Iraq's biggest oil refinery, Baiji, has been shut down and its foreign staff evacuated, refinery officials said on Tuesday, adding that local staff remain in place and the military is still in control of the facility. 
 
 Isis jihadists have advanced into the oil refinery town of Baiji and surrounded the refinery. 
 
 Global oil prices have shot up since the Isis offensive in Iraq began, but dropped slightly on Tuesday with the announcement of US troops being deployed in the country. 
 
 Isis supporters wave al-Qaida flags in Mosul (AP) 
 
 10.26 William Hague has said the "circumstances are right" to reopen Britain's embassy in Iran. 
 
 The comments follow talks this weekend between Hague, the British foreign secretary, and his Iranian counterpart over cooperation on the Iraq crisis. 
 
 10.06 Fighting in Syria between Isis and the Assad regime appears to have restarted after a two-week hiatus. 
 
 Isis was initially welcomed by anti-government rebels in the Syrian civil war, but its abuses and ambitions for an Islamic caliphate straddling Syria and Iraq quickly alienated its erstwhile allies there. 
 
 While Isis has been pushed out of the northern Syrian regions around Aleppo, it retains a strong presence in Raqa, Hasakey and Deir Ezzor. 
 
 Fighting was reported in Deir Ezzor on Monday night, as well as a car bomb in Shmeytiyeh village, targeting a base belonging to Al-Nusra and Islamist rebel brigades fighting Isis. Six are reported dead. 
 
 
 
 Map showing Deir Ezzor in relation to northern Iraq 
 
 10.00 Iraqi state news channel "Iraqiya" has said that the army killed two Isis commanders on Tuesday. It did not say where in Iraq. More details to follow 
 
 09.49 We also have reports of another repelled Isis attack, this time on the northern Iraq village of Basheer, some nine miles south of the Kurdish city of Kirkuk. 
 
 Like Tal Afar, which fell to jihadists yesterday, Basheer is predominantly inhabited by Shia ethnic Turkmens. 
 
 Isis jihadists were beaten back from Basheer by a mixture of local militia and police forces, after the Iraqi army fled the region some days ago, according to reports. 
 
 Shiite tribal fighters raise their weapons and chant slogans against Isis (AP) 
 
 09.35 More details on the decision by US president Barack Obama last night to send troops into Iraq, albeit on a limited basis, by Damien McElroy, our Foreign Affairs Correspondent: 
 
 The US national security council held a late night session to consider options for military action to support Iraq's government hours after US and Iranian officials discussed cooperation on stabilising the region. 
 
 President Obama has made U.S. action contingent on Nouri al-Maliki broadening his Shia-dominated government. 
 
 "The President will continue to consult with his national security team in the days to come," the White House said, without elaborating. 
 
 Among those attending the meeting were Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, CIA Director John Brennan and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey. 
 
 09.28 William Hague, the British foreign secretary, is expected to announce this afternoon that the British embassy in Tehran will reopen. 
 
 Full diplomatic relations were suspended after attacks on the British embassy in Iran in 2011. 
 
 A Iraqi young boy and tribesmen hold up their weapons as they gather to show their readiness to join Iraqi security forces (AFP/GETTY) 
 
 09.25 An overnight attack took place in the centre of Baquba, capital of Diyala provinnce, and according to the officers, saw militants temporarily occupying several neighbourhoods. 
 
 Militants attacked and took control of parts of the central Iraq city of Baquba but security forces eventually repelled the assault on Tuesday, army and police officers said. 
 
 Baqubah is around 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. 
 
 09.20 Iraqi government forces still hold parts of the northern town of Tal Afar, in Nineveh province, which was largely seized by Isis jihadists yesterday, according to deputy provincial council chief Nuriddin Qabalan. 
 
 08.45 Video footage has been released of the comments made yesterday by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who said America is willing to talk with Iran over ways the two long-time foes might help stop the insurgents known as Isis. In an interview with Yahoo! News, Kerry said Washington is "open to discussions" with Tehran if the Iranians can help end the violence and restore confidence in the Iraqi government. 
 
 Today is the second day of critical nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers including the US and Britain, with just five weeks until a July 20 deadline to reach a deal and gaps between the two sides seemingly still huge. Talks on Iraq have reportedly taken place on the sidelines of the conference. 
 
 08.25 Cold blooded "executions" said to have been carried out by militants in northern Iraq almost certainly amount to war crimes, the United Nations said on Monday. Richard Spencer reports for the Telegraph from Erbil, Iraq: 
 
 After the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Isis) released graphic photographs of its fighters shooting scores of young men, Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, voiced shock over the bloodshed. 
 
 Isis claims to have executed 1,700 people after capturing the Iraqi city of Tikrit. Ms Pillay said the figure could not be verified, but added: "This apparently systematic series of cold-blooded executions, mostly conducted in various locations in the Tikrit area, almost certainly amounts to war crimes." 
 
 Navi Pillay (REUTERS) 
 
 08.00 About 100 additional US forces are being put on standby, most likely in Kuwait, and could be used for airfield management, security and logistics support, officials said. 
 
 Separately, three U.S. officials said the White House was considering sending a contingent of special forces soldiers to Iraq. Their limited mission - which has not yet been approved - would focus on training and advising beleaguered Iraqi troops, many of whom have fled their posts across the nation's north and west as the al-Qaida-inspired insurgency has advanced in the worst threat to the country since American troops left in 2011. 
 
 07.47 The survival of Nouri al-Maliki's democratically elected government is of crucial importance to the West, our leader argues this morning: 
 
 Mr al-Maliki, whose failure to address Iraq’s long-standing sectarian divisions has helped create the current crisis, clearly does not enjoy a high level of support in London and Washington. But that is no justification for allowing events to take their bloody course in the hope that Mr al-Maliki will prevail. Where Britain’s national interests are concerned, making sure Iraq’s democratically elected government survives the current crisis is far preferable to the barbarous, Islamist alternative. 
 
 Read the full leader here: It is in Britain’s interests to secure a stable Iraq 
 
 07.30 Good morning and welcome to our live blog of events in Iraq, where Isis have continued to gain ground against Maliki's government forces. 
 
 Last night US president Barack Obama notified Congress that up to 275 troops would be sent to Iraq to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the American Embassy in Baghdad. 
 
 The soldiers - 170 of which have already arrived in Iraq - were armed for combat, though Obama has insisted he does not intend for U.S. forces to be engaged in direct fighting. ||||| Iranian armed forces members march in a military parade marking the 38th anniversary of Iraq's 1980 invasion of Iran, in front of the shrine of the late revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, outside... (Associated Press) 
 
 Iranian armed forces members march in a military parade marking the 38th anniversary of Iraq's 1980 invasion of Iran, in front of the shrine of the late revolutionary founder, Ayatollah Khomeini, outside Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018. Gunmen attacked the military parade, killing at least eight... (Associated Press) 
 
 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Gunmen disguised as soldiers attacked an annual Iranian military parade Saturday in the country's oil-rich southwest, killing at least 24 people and wounding 53 in the bloodiest assault to strike the country in recent years. 
 
 The attack in Ahvaz saw gunfire sprayed into a crowd of marching Revolutionary Guardsmen, bystanders and government officials watching from a nearby riser. Suspicion immediately fell on the region's Arab separatists, who previously only attacked unguarded oil pipelines under the cover of darkness. 
 
 Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif immediately blamed the attack on regional countries and their "U.S. masters," calling the gunmen "terrorists recruited, trained armed and paid" by foreign powers. That further raises tensions in the Mideast as Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers is in jeopardy after President Donald Trump withdrew America from the accord. 
 
 "Iran will respond swiftly and decisively in defense of Iranian lives," Zarif wrote on Twitter. 
 
 The attack came as rows of Revolutionary Guardsmen marched down Ahvaz's Quds, or Jerusalem, Boulevard, which like many other places around the country saw an annual parade marking the start of Iran's long 1980s war with Iraq. Images captured by state television showed journalists and onlookers turn to look toward the first shots, then the rows of marchers broke as soldiers and civilians sought cover under sustained gunfire. 
 
 "Oh God! Go go go! Lie down! Lie down!" one man screamed as a woman fled with her baby. 
 
 In the aftermath, paramedics tended to the wounded as soldiers, some bloodied in their dress uniforms, helped their comrades to ambulances. 
 
 The state-run IRNA news agency said the attack killed 24 people and wounded 53, citing "knowledgeable sources" without elaborating. It said gunmen wore Guard uniforms and targeted a riser where military and police commanders were sitting. 
 
 "We suddenly realized that some armed people wearing fake military outfits started attacking the comrades from behind (the stage) and then opened fire on women and children," an unnamed wounded soldier told state TV. "They were just aimlessly shooting around and did not have a specific target." 
 
 Details about the attack remained unclear immediately afterward. The semi-official Fars news agency, which is close to the Guard, meanwhile said two gunmen on a motorcycle wearing khaki uniforms carried out the attack. 
 
 Khuzestan Gov. Gholamreza Shariati told IRNA that two gunmen were killed and two others were arrested. 
 
 State TV hours later reported that all four gunmen had been killed, with three dying during the attack and one later succumbing to his wounds at a hospital. 
 
 Who carried out the assault also remained in question. State television immediately described the assailants as "takfiri gunmen," a term previously used to describe the Islamic State group. Iran has been deeply involved in the fight against IS in Iraq and has aided embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country's long war. 
 
 But in the hours following the attack, state media and government officials seemed to come to the consensus that Arab separatists in the region were responsible. The separatists, however, previously only conducted pipeline bombings at night or hit-and-run attacks. 
 
 The separatists accuse Iran's Shiite theocracy of discriminating against its Sunni Arab citizens. Iran has blamed its Mideast archrival, the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for funding their activity. State media in Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge the attack. 
 
 The Islamic State group later claimed responsibility in a message on its Amaaq news agency, but provided no evidence it carried out the assault. The militants have made a string of false claims in the wake of major defeats in Iraq and Syria. 
 
 In Tehran, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani watched a military parade that included ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel and U.S. military bases in the Mideast. Rouhani said the U.S. withdraw from the nuclear deal was an attempt to get Iran to give up its military arsenal. 
 
 "Iran neither put its defensive arms aside nor lessens its defensive capabilities," Rouhani said. "Iran will add to its defensive power day by day." 
 
 Saturday's attack comes after a coordinated June 7, 2017 Islamic State group assault on parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in Tehran. At least 18 people were killed and more than 50 wounded. 
 
 Khomeini led the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah to become Iran's first supreme leader until his death in 1989. The assault shocked Tehran, which largely has avoided militant attacks in the decades after the tumult surrounding the Islamic Revolution. 
 
 In the last decade, such attacks have been incredibly rare. In 2009 more than 40 people, including six Guard commanders, were killed in a suicide attack by Sunni extremists in Iran's Sistan and Baluchistan province. 
 
 Iran's Revolutionary Guard is a paramilitary force answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The Guard also has vast holdings in Iran's economy. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Maamoun Youssef in Cairo and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report. ||||| Foreign ministers from more than 30 countries, including Persian Gulf Arab states, are in Paris to discuss broad political, security and humanitarian aspects of tackling the Islamic State. (Reuters) 
 
 Foreign ministers from more than 30 countries, including Persian Gulf Arab states, are in Paris to discuss broad political, security and humanitarian aspects of tackling the Islamic State. (Reuters) 
 
 Iran on Monday spurned an American request for cooperation in the fight against Islamic State militants, but the United States said the door remains open to a rare opportunity to make common cause with its principal adversary in the Middle East. 
 
 Iran’s rebuff came as world powers meeting in the French capital agreed to use “any means necessary” to combat the militant force surging in Iraq and Syria. 
 
 Diplomats from 26 nations and several international organizations began dividing responsibilities for what U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry said will be an expanded international military, diplomatic and law enforcement assault on the group. 
 
 “It’s not the Iraq war of 2003,” Kerry told reporters Monday. “We’re not building a military coalition for an invasion. We’re building a military coalition, together with all the other pieces, for a transformation.” 
 
 The sudden rise of the Islamic State has not only rearranged old rivalries and alliances but also eclipsed Syria’s civil war and Iraq’s sectarian fragmentation as the most pressing threat in the Middle East. 
 
 Secretary of State John Kerry, right, shakes hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at an international conference in Paris to determine a response to the growing threat posed by the Islamic State. (Brendan Smialowski/AP) 
 
 The notion that the United States might find its concerns shared by foes Iran and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is startling, as is the emerging partnership between Saudi Arabia, the spiritual center of Sunni Islam, and Shiite-led Iraq. 
 
 Kerry noted Monday that the support building for Iraq as it confronts the militants would have been unthinkable only a few months ago. 
 
 As the Paris talks opened — without representatives from Iran or Syria — French fighter jets flew a reconnaissance mission over Iraq. 
 
 France is alone in publicly offering to join the United States in flying bombing missions against Islamic State targets in Iraq, but Arab states have signaled willingness behind the scenes. 
 
 The goal is to back up Iraqi ground forces trying to reverse the militant gains in western and northern Iraq. A statement from the diplomats in Paris made no mention of Syria, where the militants have carved out a haven in the midst of the country’s war. 
 
 In a show of support for Iraq’s new leadership, the conference participants pledged to expunge the militants from territory seized in Iraq “by any means necessary, including appropriate military assistance.” 
 
 Iran played spoiler. Its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, tweeted his disdain for the international effort and revealed a back-channel U.S. offer of unspecified cooperation against the militants. Khamenei said Iran rejected the U.S. request because of Washington’s “evil intentions,” the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. 
 
 Many Iraqis say they are hopeful about a one-day conference aimed at attacking the threat from Islamic State militants. (Reuters) 
 
 The Reuters news agency quoted Khamenei as telling Iran’s state television that the U.S. request was “hollow and self-serving,” echoing Iran’s claims that Western nations are seeking to expand their influence in the region as part of the campaign against the Islamic State. 
 
 The United States did not deny the outreach to Iran and said discussions with Tehran will continue — underscoring Iran’s influence in the region as well as the political complexities of bringing the Shiite powerhouse into the emerging international alliance against the Islamic State. 
 
 “I’m just going to hold open the possibility always of having a discussion that had the possibility of being constructive,” Kerry said, without providing substantive details about the U.S. request. “I’m not going to get into a back-and-forth.” 
 
 By going public with the U.S. offer Monday, Iran appeared to close off the possibility of cooperation against the militants for now. 
 
 However, Iran has sent its allied Shiite militias in Iraq to fight with Western-backed Kurds against the Islamic State. Iran’s Shiite theocracy considers the Sunni militants a challenge to Iraq’s majority Shiites — whose political parties have close ties to Tehran — and a destabilizing force against Assad, Iran’s other main regional ally. 
 
 Although details of the U.S.-Iranian discussion remain vague, it appears to have been an offer of behind-the-scenes cooperation rather than a public partnership. 
 
 Any public cooperation with Iran would doom the emerging alliance between Iraq and Sunni Arab states in the Persian Gulf region and elsewhere that had feuded with Nouri al-Maliki, the former Iraqi prime minister. The Sunni states regard Iran with deep suspicion and considered Maliki, a Shiite partisan with strong ties to Tehran, as a pawn of Iran. 
 
 France had wanted to invite Iran to the talks, but the United States resisted the move. 
 
 The United States is trying to stitch together a diverse alliance against the Islamic State and overcome reluctance among many states to intervene in any way in the Syrian conflict, now in its fourth year. Nearly 200,000 people have died in the Syrian fighting, according to the United Nations. 
 
 Kerry said Monday that Saudi King Abdullah had told him that if Iran attended Monday’s session, the Saudis would boycott. The United Arab Emirates had drawn the same line, Kerry said. 
 
 As the international efforts gathered steam, the leader of a key Iran-linked militia in Iraq pledged Monday to pull back from any area where U.S. forces intervene, including with possible aerial attacks. 
 
 Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said his forces would pull out of any area where the United States launches attacks, “whether by land or sea, directly or indirectly.” His forces waged fierce battles against U.S. troops in the years after the American-led 2003 invasion. 
 
 Opening the Paris conference, French President François Hollande said the threat from global militancy requires a coordinated and international response. France is among the European nations deeply alarmed by the flow of radicalized young men who have traveled from Europe to fight in Syria and who could seek to return home. 
 
 The meeting came at the end of Kerry’s week-long tour of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Turkey. The trip sought to frame the division of labor for a wider assault on the Islamic State, with the U.S. military and Iraqi forces playing the central roles. 
 
 On Sunday, U.S. officials said Arab states have volunteered to launch airstrikes alongside U.S. planes. But they stressed that such an expansion was still under discussion and subject to review by Iraq. 
 
 Officials from the region said the volunteers included Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and others whose leaders had been waiting to hear from the administration that it has a viable plan and is prepared to follow through with it. 
 
 The United Arab Emirates and Qatar conducted strikes during the 2011 air campaign in Libya. Qatar’s role is not entirely clear now, though it is helping train Syrian rebels, as is Jordan. 
 
 Saudi Arabia is also expected to participate in expanded training of the rebels fighting the Islamic State and Assad. The Saudis have been pressing the United States to accede to Syrian rebels’ long-standing requests for surface-to-air antiaircraft weapons, which could be a game-changer for the chronically underequipped opposition forces, but the Obama administration has refused. 
 
 The U.S. decision to confront the militants, first in Iraq and eventually in Syria, also benefits Assad, although U.S. officials insist they will act only in their own interests. 
 
 Kerry ruled out coordination with Syria. 
 
 Brian Murphy in Washington and Loveday Morris in Baghdad contributed to this report. ||||| Story highlights Vice President Biden stresses need for national unity in talk with Iraqi PM 
 
 A cleric called for attacks against U.S. embassies in the case of airstrikes 
 
 Investigation will probe Iraqi security forces who left posts, general commander says 
 
 Saudi Arabia responds to Iraq's accusation that it's helping ISIS, calling allegation a "falsehood" 
 
 While Iraq's military claimed Wednesday to have driven back militants battling for control of the country, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Congress that the United States has received a request from the Iraqi government to use its air power in the conflict. 
 
 Gen. Martin Dempsey, the senior ranking member of the U.S. armed forces, spoke before the Senate Appropriations Committee Wednesday on Capitol Hill in Washington, saying that the United States' "national security interest (is) to counter (ISIS) where we find them." 
 
 ISIS is the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. 
 
 JUST WATCHED ISIS militants attack major oil refinery Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH ISIS militants attack major oil refinery 03:39 
 
 Comprising mostly Sunni Muslims, ISIS is an al Qaeda splinter group that wants to establish a caliphate, or Islamic state, that would stretch from Iraq into northern Syria. The group has had substantial success in Syria battling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's security forces. Since launching their offensive in Iraq, ISIS claims to have killed at least 1,700 Shiites. 
 
 Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fled, prompting fears of a brewing humanitarian crisis. 
 
 Qassim Atta, a spokesman for Iraqi security forces, on Wednesday night said an investigation had been ordered into 59 high-ranking security officials accused of leaving their posts. The officials could be executed if found guilty, Atta said. 
 
 Concerns over an oil refinery in the Iraqi town of Baiji continued, a key consideration because so much of Iraq's economy depends on its oil production. The country produces 3.3 million barrels per day and has the world's fourth-largest proven crude oil reserves, according to OPEC 
 
 Militants attacked the refinery complex, managing to take over some 60% of it, and set fire to five storage containers, according to police officials. Sporadic clashes are ongoing, they said. 
 
 Earlier, Atta said in a televised news conference that Iraqi forces had killed 40 ISIS militants in Baiji, 225 kilometers (140 miles) north of Baghdad, the capital. 
 
 "The situation in Tal Afar, Samarra, and Baiji is under control," Atta said. 
 
 Atta claimed that Iraq's military were "defeating ISIS in the Baiji area" and that "most of the areas" around the northwestern city of Tal Afar were liberated. 
 
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 That apparently included 50 Siemens employees, including eight Germans, who were holed up in a power station in Baiji but have been freed, according to German officials. The employees are safe and well, CNN was told. 
 
 According to German diplomats, around 8,000 German nationals are currently in Iraq. 
 
 Tal Afar fell to ISIS on Sunday, according to Iraq's military. Many Tal Afar residents, including ethnic minority Shiite Turkmen, fled the fighting north toward Iraq's Kurdish region. 
 
 The casualty numbers and the situation on the ground have not been independently confirmed by CNN. 
 
 Saudi government denial 
 
 Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki struck a defiant note in his weekly address, insisting that Iraqi authorities "will win" despite the setbacks of the past week, during which Iraqi security forces crumbled in Mosul and elsewhere before the militants' advance. 
 
 "We absorbed the initial shock of the military operations and now we are on the rebound we will respond and keep the momentum," he said. "What happened was a catastrophe, but not every catastrophe is a defeat." 
 
 Al-Maliki blamed political paralysis, not military weakness, for the crisis. He urged Iraqis to unite against terrorism, insisting that the political process would begin to move now that elections are over. 
 
 Critics blame al-Maliki and his Shia-dominated government for the worsening sectarian division in Iraq. 
 
 Earlier, the Prime Minister's office released a statement accusing Saudi Arabia of appeasing terrorists and providing radical groups with material and moral support. 
 
 "The Saudi government must bear responsibility of the serious crimes committed by these groups," the statement read. 
 
 On Wednesday in a strongly worded statement, the Saudi Arabian government denied that the kingdom provides "either moral or financial support to ISIS or any terrorist networks. Any suggestion to the contrary is a falsehood." 
 
 The Saudis blamed the Iraqi Cabinet for "exclusionary policies (that) have fomented this current crisis." 
 
 Obama, congressional leaders huddle 
 
 On Tuesday, ISIS militants battled Iraqi security forces for control of Baquba, only 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Baghdad. 
 
 The fighters have "made a great advance on Baquba" and are pushing very hard to take it, officials said Tuesday. But the city has not fallen. 
 
 Holding on to cities so close to the capital, where nerves are fraying, may prove crucial to al-Maliki's government. 
 
 What is happening in Iraq is increasingly taking on the urgency of an international crisis. 
 
 On Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama huddled with congressional leaders. 
 
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 "We had a good discussion. The President basically just briefed us on the situation in Iraq and indicated he didn't feel he had any need for authority from us for the steps that he might take and indicated he would keep us posted," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters. 
 
 Also Wednesday, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke with al-Maliki, and other leaders, by phone. 
 
 "He emphasized the need for the Prime Minister -- and all Iraqi leaders -- to govern in an inclusive manner, promote stability and unity among Iraq's population, and address the legitimate needs of Iraq's diverse communities," according to a statement from the White House. 
 
 The administration faces some tough choices. 
 
 Obama has ruled out ground troops. Airstrikes remain under consideration. 
 
 A video message purportedly from a Moroccan Sunni cleric called for attacks against U.S. embassies worldwide if the United States conducts airstrikes in Iraq. The message, believed to be from Sheik Mohammad Ali Algzouli, was posted online Tuesday. 
 
 Turkish citizens kidnapped 
 
 Iraq's neighbor, Turkey, and India have also seen its citizens caught up directly in the conflict. 
 
 A Turkish official told CNN on Wednesday that the country is aware "some construction workers in Kirkuk may have been kidnapped. We are following developments." Kirkuk is one of the provinces that has seen heavy fighting. 
 
 The latest reported incident follows the abduction of 48 Turkish citizens last week from the Turkish Consulate in Mosul, Iraq's second-largest city. It fell to ISIS militants just over a week ago after Iraqi forces collapsed. 
 
 The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that all efforts continue toward the safe return to Turkey of the consulate staff and 31 other Turkish citizens held in Mosul's Geyara district. 
 
 India's Ministry of External Affairs said Wednesday that 40 Indian nationals working in Mosul for a construction company had been kidnapped in Iraq. 
 
 Their location is unknown, ministry spokesman Syed Akbarruddin told reporters in New Delhi. The kidnapped Indians work for the Tariq Noor Al Huda Co., based in Baghdad, he said. 
 
 Civilians flee 
 
 Families -- mostly Shiite -- are leaving Baquba and other Iraqi cities in droves. They're taking whatever possessions they can carry. Some are even taking livestock. 
 
 Over the past week or so, ISIS militants have pressed forward, taking large chunks of territory. They have had several significant victories, including Tal Afar, Mosul and two villages in Diyala province. 
 
 In their advance through Iraq, the militants have had support from Sunni tribes and militia angered by al-Maliki and his government, which they accuse of marginalizing Sunni concerns. 
 
 The tribes, who fought alongside U.S. forces to push al Qaeda militants out of Iraq in 2006 and 2007, want to see al-Maliki forced from power but their continued backing for ISIS is not guaranteed. 
 
 Baghdad offensive 
 
 The Obama administration appears to have some confidence that the insurgents will fail to take the capital. 
 
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 A senior intelligence official drew a contrast between Iraqi Security Forces defending Baghdad and other Iraqi soldiers who melted away in the face of ISIS fighters across northern Iraq earlier this month. 
 
 "ISF elements protecting Baghdad are assessed to be more loyal to the regime and are composed of mostly Shia who are more likely to resist," the official said. "These factors, plus the fact that they are defending the capital, should motivate the ISF elements in Baghdad to put up a better fight." 
 
 Al-Maliki fired four top military officers that "deserted and did not fulfill their professional and national duty," according to a statement read Tuesday on state TV. 
 
 Among them were the operations command chief for Nineveh province -- of which Mosul is the capital -- and two of his officers, the statement said. Another commander will be tried in a military court in absentia for fleeing the battlefield to an unknown place. 
 
 The Iran variable 
 
 President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that Iran would spare no effort to protect holy Shiite shrines in neighboring Iraq from "killers and terrorists," Iran's state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. 
 
 A senior security official in Baghdad told CNN last week that Iran had sent about 500 Revolutionary Guard troops to help fight the ISIS militants. 
 
 Rouhani denied the report over the weekend but said he would be open to helping if asked, though with strategic guidance rather than troops. Iran is often accused of using proxies to hold sway in the region but has never militarily intervened in any sovereign country. 
 
 Iran is closely allied with the Shia-led government of Iraq. 
 
 The United States and Iran held "very brief discussions" in Vienna, Austria, about Iraq and the threat posed by ISIS on Monday. 
 
 Forces on standby 
 
 Still, leaving nothing to chance, the Pentagon is moving more firepower and manpower into the region. 
 
 Already at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, dozens of Marines and Army troops have moved in to beef up security. Another 100 personnel are in the region to provide support if needed, the Pentagon said. 
 
 The aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush and five other warships are now in the Persian Gulf. More than 500 Marines and dozens of helicopters are on standby. 
 
 Speaking at a CNN town hall meeting on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state and a potential 2016 presidential candidate, said the Iraqi government made a "mistake" by failing to forge an agreement with the United States to keep American troops in Iraq after the war. 
 
 The United States wanted American soldiers to be immune from prosecution. The Iraqi government resisted. 
 
 "It's imperative that the government of Iraq, currently led by Maliki, be much more inclusive, much more willing to share power, involve all the different segments of Iraq," she said. 
 
 "And I believe strongly that if Maliki is not the kind of leader who can do that, then the Iraqi people need to think seriously about the kind of leader they need to try to unite Iraqis against what is a terrible, imminent threat from these most extreme terrorists."
– The Islamic State may have claimed responsibility for Wednesday's twin terror attacks in Tehran that killed 12, but Iran has a different culprit in mind: regional rival Saudi Arabia. "This terrorist attack happened only a week after the meeting between the US president and the (Saudi) backward leaders who support terrorists," says a statement from Iran's Revolutionary Guards, per Reuters. It acknowledges that ISIS was "involved," however, thus insinuating a link between ISIS and the Saudis, notes New York. A look at coverage: Potent symbols: The attackers hit not only the parliament building in Tehran but the mausoleum with the tomb of founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini—"the two most potent symbols of the 1979 revolution," writes Simon Tisdall at the Guardian. For Iranians, this is "deeply shocking," the equivalent of someone attacking the Lincoln Memorial in the US. The attacks: Details on how the coordinated attacks unfolded are at the New York Times. A first: Assuming the ISIS claim is legit, this would be the first ISIS attack in Iran, but the militant group has wanted to strike there for years, explains a Q&A at PRI. ISIS is Sunni, while Iran is a Shia nation, and it's no small distinction: ISIS views Shiites as apostates. The backdrop: The New York Times notes the attacks come not only after Trump's trip (seen as emboldening the Saudis) but after the Saudi move to isolate Qatar, which it accuses of supporting terrorism and Iran. It all relates to the main issue: "Iran and Saudi Arabia are the leading nations on opposing sides of the Middle East split between Shiite and Sunni Islam." Morale boost: Given ISIS retreats in Iraq and Syria, the successful strikes in Iran will clearly be a big morale boost to the group, per an analysis at the BBC. As they lose their strongholds in those countries, they want followers to launch attacks elsewhere, and no target is bigger than Iran. Trump response: It was notably mixed. "We grieve and pray for the innocent victims of the terrorist attacks in Iran, and for the Iranian people, who are going through such challenging times," he said in a statement. But then added: "We underscore that states that sponsor terrorism risk falling victim to the evil they promote." The US does indeed consider Iran a state sponsor of terrorism, notes Business Insider. Ominous threat: Just hours before the attacks, the Saudi foreign minister had said Iran should be punished for supporting groups such as al-Qaeda, per Al Arabiya English.