Hvorfor har islamistene så stor militær suksess i Irak om dagen? Grunnene er utvilsomt flere. De rir på en medgangsbølge, de har åpenbart vært i stand til å skaffe seg våpen, og de lukter at Vesten er på vikende front med minimal lyst til å gripe inn.

Men det finnes en forklaring til. ISIL har fått hjelp av militære formasjoner som tilhørte hæren i Saddam Husseins Baath-regime, som ble oppløst etter invasjonen i 2003:

As the dimensions of the assault began to become clear, it was evident that a number of militant groups had joined forces, including Baathist military commanders from the Hussein era, whose goal is to rout the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. One of the Baathists, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, was a top military commander and a vice president in the Hussein government and one of the few prominent Baathists to evade capture by the Americans throughout the occupation.

Islamister og gamle offiserer har altså inngått en slags taktisk allianse – de blir neppe perlevenner i all evighet – med sikte på å styrte Iraks regjering.

By late Wednesday, the Sunni militants, many aligned with the radical Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, were battling loyalist forces at the northern entrance to the city of Samarra, about 70 miles north of Baghdad.

Hva skal hindre dem nå?

Problemene kan snart banke på Europas dør:

Word of the latest militant advance came as a United Nations agency reported that 500,000 people had fled Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. The International Organization for Migration, based in Geneva, said the civilians had mainly fled on foot, because the militants would not let them use vehicles and had taken control of the airport. Roughly the same number were displaced from Anbar Province in western Iraq as the militants gained ground there, the organization said.

New York Times: Iraq Militants, Pushing South, Aim at Capital