Exiled Iraqi VP seeks firm action against ISIL

The Iraqi government should take firm action against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which has rapidly spread across northern Iraq, the country's fugitive Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi said in Istanbul Thursday.

"The main reason behind the uprising is primarily the injustice, marginalisation and oppression of al-Maliki against the Arab Sunnis," Xinhua cited the Daily News as quoting al-Hashimi who blamed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for the current violence on Arab Sunnis in Iraq.

"Even the international community has turned a blind eye to their tragedy and has done nothing but watch the ongoing aggression of Prime Minister al-Maliki against al-Anbar province for five months," al-Hashimi said, calling for firm action against the ISIL.

Al-Hashimi was convicted of organising murders by Baghdad's criminal court in 2012. But Turkey has given asylum to him despite protests by the Iraqi government.

On Wednesday, Iraq's security forces continued fierce clashes with ISIL militant groups, as the troops repelled an attack on a major oil refinery in Salahudin province.

The deterioration of the security situation in Iraq started last Tuesday after bloody clashes broke out between the Iraqi security forces and hundreds of Sunni militants.

The latter has already taken control of Iraq's second largest city Mosul and swathes of other territories after the security forces withdrew from their posts in Nineveh and other predominantly Sunni provinces.