Iraqi forces in disarray as Abadi requests US arms, UK strikes

The Council of Muthanna Province in Iraq, a far south-western district that shares a border with Saudi Arabia, warns that it could pull all of its troops out of battles against IS further north within 72 hours.

According to a statement just released, the council said that it fears a repeat of "massacres" committed in Mosul, Salah al-Din and Diyala provinces.

It said that unless measures are taken within 72 hours to reassess the army's military strategy, it will demand that all troops from the province leave battles in those provinces.

The statement comes after the grisly events in Saqlawiyah in Anbar province last week, when Iraqi officials said that 300 Iraqi soldiers had been killed in a poison chlorine attack. 

As the statement highlighted difficulties the Iraqi army is facing, Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said he had got guarantees from US President Obama that he would arm Iraqi forces.

Earlier in the day, Abadi had directly asked UK Prime Minister David Cameron to launch airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq.

Iraqi requests for outside assistance came on the back of the first official acknowledgement from Tehran that the leader of the Iranian elite revolutionary guard force, al-Quds, had been on the ground in the Iraqi Kurdistan capital of Erbil.