Region

BAGHDAD — Behind black gates and high walls, Iraqi national security agents watch 200 women and children.

Boys and girls play in the yard and then dart inside their trailers, located in a former US military camp and onetime headquarters for Saddam Hussein's officials in Babel province's capital Hilla.

The women and children are unwilling guests, rounded up as they fled with their male relatives in October from Jurf Al Sakhr, a bastion of Islamic State (IS), during a Shiite militia and military operation to clear the farming community.

Once they were arrested, security forces separated out the men, accusing them of being IS fighters. They have not been heard from since.

Security forces say the women and children are being investigated, but have not been brought to court.

Their status shows how central Iraq's mixed Shiite and Sunni regions are being altered.

As Shiite forces push into territories held by IS, many Sunnis have fled for fear of both the Shiite-led government and the Sunni jihadists.

Shiite leaders insist IS must never be allowed to strike them again, nor return to areas now abandoned.

Shiite groups now decide who can stay in a community and who should leave; whose houses should be destroyed and whose can stand.

In one case, a powerful Shiite paramilitary organisation has started redrawing the geography of central Iraq, building a road between Shiite parts of Diyala province and Samarra, a Sunni city that is home to a Shiite shrine.

"The ideas of what Shiitestan's limits are is changing," said Ali Allawi a historian and former Iraqi minister.

"Some of these towns and villages, which were neutral or partial to ISIS, have been retaken. I don't think the people living there will go back. We are talking about depopulated areas that may be resettled by different groups."

More than 130,000 people, mostly Sunnis, fled central Iraq in 2014, counting just Baghdad's agricultural belt and northeastern Diyala province, the International Rescue Committee told Reuters.

The exodus has left villages empty as Shiite paramilitaries, tribes and security forces fill the void.

Iraqi government officials including Prime Minister Haider Abadi stress the importance of helping people return home.

But in the current chaos it is questionable whether officials can help, or that the displaced will want to return.

‘I am trapped’

Already dramatic changes are happening on the ground. For the 200 women and children from Jurf Al Sakhr, it has meant an undefined period of detention.

When they ran from their homes in October raising white surrender flags, security forces and militias separated the women from their male relatives.

Now the women, jailed in Hilla, worry about their fate.

"I'm trapped here living on charity without understanding why all this happened to us", said Um Mohamed, sobbing during a visit Reuters made to the heavily secured compound last week.

"All that I wish is to have my husband back and to return to our small farm."

Security officials say the women and children have not been brought before a court, and will not be freed soon.

"These families were joining or harbouring IS," said Falah Al Rahdi, head of the Babel provincial council's security committee. "The judicial system will decide their fate."

Privately, officials in Babel province vow never to welcome back its Sunni residents.

Confiscate land

As Shiite militia leaders and tribal allies surround Sunni villages in central Iraq, they insist they have strong intelligence from inside those communities.

"Our orders come from the government: whoever is with IS, we will confiscate their land. Those who aren't IS will be allowed back," a national commander from Asaib Ahl Al Haq told Reuters.

He said he contacted sources in IS-held areas and waited until all civilians had escaped before liberating a community.

However, those who have lost their homes say the militias make little distinction between jihadists and civilians when they storm areas.

Akram Shahab, 32, a Shiite in Diyala's Saadiya district, fled with his family last June when IS were about to overrun the town.

He heard from a Sunni neighbour that a jihadist family had moved in. For Shahab it was a relief his house was not blown up.

But after Iraqi militias and security forces kicked IS out of Saadiya in November, Shahab was stunned to learn that the militias had burned his house assuming it was a terrorist's.

The next day, Shahab went with Shiite militiamen to inspect the ruins.

"I blamed the militia members at the scene for burning my house and they defended themselves, saying how could they tell a Sunni house from a Shiite house."

Shahab, who comes from a family with both Shiite and Sunni relatives, said he managed to save his Sunni aunt's house by telling the militia she belonged to their sect.

"They spray-painted [Shiite] on the gate to alert the other militia groups," he said.

"They told me,'We need to clean your town from those germs who supported IS. You might have lost your house but as a Shiite you will live with your head high from now on'."

Scenic highway

Not only are homes being demolished, but new infrastructure is being built.

A Shiite paramilitary organisation is constructing a road to strengthen its positions across the mixed areas of Diyala and neighbouring Salahuddin province.

The Badr Organisation, a leading political party and militia with ties to Iran, is supervising the new road, which leads to Samarra.

It means Badr can resupply troops guarding Samarra, currently surrounded by IS.

The 35km road will also allow Shiite pilgrims from Iran to visit Samarra, one of Shiite Islam's most sacred shrines.

On a recent day, in olive green sweater and commander's cap, Badr Organisation chief Hadi Al Amri toured the 35km road.

Arguably the most popular Shiite politician in Iraq for defending Diyala, Amri placed orange work cones on the ground and directed bulldozers.

"The road is of strategic importance to finish off IS in the outskirts of Diyala and to put pressure on them in Salahuddin," said Badr lawmaker Mohammed Naji.

"Hadi Amri suggested this road and he supervises it daily in spite of the dangers."

Senior Iraqi politicians say Amri is the commander closest to Iran on the battlefield.

Amri's new project — the Samarra road — passes through one trouble spot: an area called Hawi, which Badr considers to be filled with IS cells.

"We have started neutralising the villages, putting guards on the road," Naji said. "We have not displaced the people there. We put forces there to make sure IS cannot enter the villages."

BENGHAZI, Libya — A suicide bomber blew up a car outside the headquarters of Libya's internationally recognised parliament Tuesday, wounding three lawmakers, a legislator said.

The attack, which a medical source said wounded a total of 18 people, came as a Libyan jet shot down a militia helicopter after Islamist-led fighters launched strikes on the eastern Al-Sidra oil terminal.

The car bomb struck near the back gate of the Dar Al Salam Hotel in the eastern city of Tobruk, where the parliament elected in June took refuge after Islamist-led militias seized control of Tripoli in August.

Farj Buhashem, a spokesman for the legislature, said parliament was meeting on the ground floor when the blast went off.

"There was broken glass and some pedestrians were injured," he said.

Lawmaker Tareq Jarushi, speaking to AFP by telephone from Tobruk, said that the blast was caused by a suicide bomber who rammed his car into the back gate.

"Witnesses saw a car painted in military colours ramming the back gate and then explode," said Jarushi.

Jarushi, who is the son of air force chief Brigadier General Saqr Jarushi, said body parts had been found at the scene of the bombing, "indicating that this was a suicide attack”.

Three lawmakers who were outside the building at the time were slightly wounded by shattered glass, he said.

A source at a Tobruk hospital said 18 people were treated for minor wounds and later released.

The attack comes as the UN mission to Libya, UNSMIL, plans a new round of peace talks between warring factions aimed at ending months of violence and political deadlock in the North African nation.

More than three years after dictator Muammar Qadhafi was toppled and killed in a NATO-backed revolt, the country remains awash with weapons and powerful militias, and has rival governments and parliaments.

The UN-brokered talks are set to take place on January 5, diplomats at the UN Security Council said last week.

But Libya’s internationally recognised parliament voted Monday not to attend the negotiations if the rival legislature in Tripoli is party to the talks, according to lawmaker Abdulsalam Nassiyeh.

Chopper downed 

The suicide bombing came as militia aircraft, including a chopper, attacked pro-government forces in the so-called “oil crescent” eastern region around Al Sidra oil terminal, said military spokesman Ali Al Hassi.

“The air force shot down the helicopter as it prepared to land at a military base near Sirte airport, after it had taken part with other aircraft in the air raids,” Hassi said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Fighters from the Islamist-led Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn) coalition of militias, which controls much of Tripoli, as well as second and third cities Benghazi and Misrata, have been trying to seize Al Sidra and nearby Ras Lanuf terminals.

They launched a surprise attack by speedboat on Thursday in which 22 soldiers in Al Sidra area were killed.

Seven oil tanks at Al Sidra were set on fire as a result of the fighting. On Sunday, firefighters managed to extinguish the blazes at four of them and put out another fire on Monday.

There are 19 tanks at Al Sidra, and two of them are still ablaze, raising concern that if the fires are not brought under control they could spread and disrupt Libya’s key oil industry.

On Monday, Libya’s internationally recognised government approved a $6 million (4.9 million euros) deal with a US firm that will send experts to extinguish the fires, a statement said.

Libya’s oil production has dropped to less than 350,000 barrels per day since clashes first erupted around the export terminals on December 13, from 800,000 previously, industry experts say.

The fighting has alarmed investors, who are concerned about possible disruptions.

On Sunday, pro-government forces raided the militia-held city of Misrata, after a Fajr Libya launched a new assault on Al Sidra.

The UN mission in Libya has denounced both the assault on Al Sidra and the strikes on Misrata.

GENEVA/BEIRUT — UN special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will be represented at talks about Syria in Moscow next month, his spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Two rounds of Geneva talks early in 2014 failed to halt the conflict which has killed 200,000 people and divisions over the future role of Syrian President Bashar Assad remain a major stumbling block to a settlement.

In a renewed peace effort, Assad's ally Russia floated the idea in recent weeks of hosting Syrian government and opposition figures in Moscow. De Mistura's invitation confirms those talks are set for January 26-29.

"It's a Russian initiative that focuses on intra-Syrian negotiations," his spokeswoman Juliette Touma said by e-mail.

“The Office of the Special Envoy will be present at these talks. The Office of the Special Envoy welcomes any initiative that would push forward reaching a peaceful and diplomatic end to the crisis in Syria,” she said, without specifying whether de Mistura himself would attend.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the talks would be a “warming up” before a potential third round of Geneva talks.

De Mistura’s involvement lends weight to the initiative, although — with tensions running high over the Ukraine crisis — there is no sign of Western participation.

Moscow has long supported Assad, including with arms supplies, and he became a more important ally after the Arab Spring protests toppled other Middle Eastern leaders.

A diplomat who tracks Syria said the talks could include discussions on ways to enforce Syria’s security, the formation of a transitional government and discussions on how to enable people who defected earlier in the conflict back into Syria.

Moscow has repeated a proposal that Assad stay in power for two years with a provisional government, before presidential elections in which he could stand again along with other candidates, the diplomat said.

However, it is unclear which Syrian opposition figures would attend the talks. Two members of the National Coalition, the main Western-backed opposition, said on Tuesday they had not received an invitation.

Coalition member Abdulahad Steifo said invitations had gone to five to 10 members personally rather than to the coalition as a body. “I think for the coalition this would be a problem,” said Steifo, who did not get an invitation.

Hadi Al Bahra, head of the National Coalition, said on Saturday that Russia lacked a clear initiative.

The body will discuss its stance at its general assembly meeting which starts on Friday, Steifo said.

Syria said on Saturday it was willing to participate in “preliminary consultations” in Moscow aimed at restarting talks next year.

DUBAI — Bahrain's opposition leader was remanded in custody Tuesday for seeking to change the regime by force, prompting cries of "tyrannical rule" and sparking fresh clashes between his supporters and police.

Sheikh Ali Salman, head of the Shiite movement Al Wefaq, was charged on Monday by authorities in the tiny Sunni-ruled nation, where the opposition boycotted a November parliamentary election that it dismissed as a farce.

The prosecution said Tuesday the cleric would remain in custody for seven days pending further investigation.

Bahrain has been gripped by sporadic violence since the authorities crushed monthlong pro-democracy protests led by Al Wefaq in 2011.

At least 89 people have been killed since then in clashes with security forces, and hundreds arrested and put on trial, human rights groups say.

Al Wefaq denounced Salman's detention, saying it "entrenches the tyrannical rule in Bahrain and closes all doors for a political solution".

"This behaviour is dangerous and reflects the magnitude of the political crisis between the regime and the people, and shows that Bahrain needs a political plan under which power would be in the hands of the people," it said.

Salman's arrest Sunday triggered clashes between police and protesters in Shiite villages outside the capital Manama, during which security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators, and which carried on into the next day.

'Don't mix religion, politics' 

Police again fired tear gas Tuesday during clashes with young protesters gathered outside the cleric's house in a Shiite suburb of the capital, and witnesses said five people were wounded.

Violence was also reported in other villages.

It came after Salman was re-elected as party leader on Friday.

The prosecution said Monday that Salman, 49, had been charged with "promoting regime change by force, threats and illegal means and of insulting the interior ministry publicly".

Prosecutor Nayef Mahmud said in a statement that Salman was also accused of inciting people to break the law and of "hatred towards a segment of the people", an allusion to Sunni Muslims who are a minority in the Shiite-majority kingdom.

The prosecutor said police also suspect Salman of calling for foreign interference by "urging super powers to intervene in Bahrain to support him in his bid to change the regime”.

The prosecution continued questioning Salman Tuesday and presented him with "recordings of his incitements, which justified violence and threats", Mahmud said.

Meanwhile, the justice and Islamic affairs ministry warned Al Wefaq against using mosques and religion for political purposes.

Al Wefaq's "implication of clerics in politics is a dangerous deviation from the principles of political work", a statement said, while urging the group to "respect the law”.

Strategically located just across the Gulf from Iran, Bahrain is home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, and Britain announced plans earlier this month to build a naval base of its own there.

The authorities have rejected Al Wefaq's demand for an elected prime minister to replace the current government dominated by the ruling royal family.

After Al Wefaq announced that it would boycott the November election, a court banned the movement from activities for three months for violating the law on associations.

NAIROBI, Kenya — A US air strike killed the intelligence chief of Somali terror group Al Shabab, Somalia's intelligence service said Tuesday.

Abdishakur is the name of the slain leader, who is also known as Tahlil, a statement from the spy agency said, adding that the operation also killed two other Al Shabab militants.

The Pentagon said the air strike took place Monday in the vicinity of Saakow, Somalia. The statement from the pentagon provided no details, beyond saying it did not believe the attack caused any civilian or bystander casualties.

A senior defence official said the strike did not target Ahmad Umar, who took over as the top leader of Al Shabab when its previous leader, Ahmed Abdi Godane, was killed in a US air strike in Somalia on September 1. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss details of the attack by name

Al Shabab is an ultra-conservative Islamic militant group that is linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network and wants to run Somalia by its strict interpretation of Shariah law. Despite militants suffering huge losses in recent years, including the killing of their leader in a US air strike earlier this year, Al Shabab remains a threat. Al Shabab leader Ahmed Godane was killed in a US air strike in September.

African Union troops supporting Somalia's weak army have pushed Al Shabab from major strongholds, including the capital, Mogadishu, in 2011. However, Al Shabab fighters still carry out terror attacks in Somalia's capital and in neighbouring countries that have contributed troops to the African Union Mission to Somalia.

On Christmas day Al Shabab gunmen attacked the main African Union base in Mogadishu. The AU base hosts UN offices and embassies.

Al Shabab leader Zakariya Ismail Hersi, who had a $3 million bounty on his head, surrendered to Somali authorities three days ago.

ADEN, Yemen — Gunmen raided two banks in the port town of Al Shahr in Yemen's eastern Hadramout province and stole about 52 million riyals ($240,000) on Tuesday, the defence ministry's news website said.

Security is poor in Hadramout, a province awash with arms where tribal structures prevail. Its inaccessible terrain of arid valleys and desert have long attracted Al Qaeda militants and criminals alike.

The 26sep.net website quoted an unnamed local source as saying that three cars with 25 gunmen raided the two banks in Al Shahr city simultaneously. One guard was killed and another was wounded.

The source said the group took nearly 32 million riyals from one bank and nearly 20 million riyals from the second bank. There was no immediate information on the identity of the Tuesday's attackers.

A day earlier an army general escaped an ambush after suspected Al Qaeda militants planted bombs on a road on which the general's convoy was travelling near Al Qatan in Hadramout.

In May, militants attacked the Hadramout city of Seyoun, targeting seven locations including the main military posts, the police headquarters, bank branches and the airport.

Local officials suspected the attackers were Al Qaeda militants retaliating for a government offensive against them. At least 27 people, including 20 militants, died in the firefight.

Yemen has been in turmoil since 2011 pro-democracy protests forced long-ruling President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down.

WASHINGTON — Taking America off a permanent war footing is proving harder than President Barack Obama may have suggested.

US troops are back in Iraq, the endgame in Afghanistan is requiring more troops — and perhaps more risks — than once expected and Obama is saddled with a worsening, high-stakes conflict in Syria.

Last spring, Obama described to newly minted army officers at the West Point academy how "the landscape has changed" after a decade of war. He cited then-dwindling conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. And he said Osama Ben Laden, whose plotting from an Al Qaeda sanctuary in Afghanistan gave rise to what became America's longest war, "is no more".

"You are the first class to graduate since 9/11 who may not be sent into combat in Iraq or Afghanistan," Obama declared to a burst of applause.

But once again the landscape has changed.

Once again the US is engaged in combat in Iraq — not by soldiers on the ground but by pilots in the sky. And the Pentagon is putting "boots on the ground" to retrain and advise Iraqi soldiers how to fight a new menace: The Islamic State (IS) militants who emerged from the Iraq insurgency that US troops fought from 2003-2011.

Once again there are worsening crises demanding US military intervention, including in Syria. Four months after his speech at the US Military Academy, Obama authorised American pilots, joined by Arab allies, to begin bombing IS targets with the aim of undermining the group's base and weakening its grip in Iraq.

And once again the US is on a path that could expand or prolong its military role in Afghanistan. The US combat role there ends December 31, but Obama has authorised remaining US troops to attack the Taliban if they pose a threat to US military personnel who are training Afghan security forces for at least the next two years.

At his final news conference of 2014, Obama spoke just 18 words on Afghanistan, saying: "In less than two weeks, after more than 13 years, our combat mission in Afghanistan will be over."

As of December 16, a total of 2,215 US troops had died in Afghanistan and 19,945 had been wounded. In Iraq, 4,491 died and 32,244 wounded.

Shortly before the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Obama, then an Illinois state senator, called it a "dumb war". He warned of unforeseen costs and consequences, arguing that President George W. Bush would be smarter to finish what he started in Afghanistan.

Obama's promise to end the war in Iraq was a key to winning the White House in 2008. He delivered on that promise, but the war was not really over. Events conspired to pull Obama back in. In January 2014 the IS group seized the Sunni city of Fallujah, scene of the bloodiest fighting of the US war a decade earlier.

In June, the militants expanded their offensive, sweeping across much of northern Iraq and capturing key cities, including Mosul. Whole divisions of the Iraqi army folded, abandoning tanks and other American-supplied war equipment. That was not just a boon to the militants. It was a blow to US prestige.

Suddenly, inexplicably, Baghdad seemed within the IS group's reach.

Two months later Obama gave the go-ahead for US air strikes in Iraq. He ruled out sending ground combat forces, but at some point next year may face another tough choice: Whether to allow US military advisers to accompany Iraqi ground forces as they launch counteroffensives, including an expected push to retake Mosul. Up to now, US advisers have been coordinating with Iraqi forces from a safer distance.

As Obama approaches the end of his sixth year in office, he awaits Congress' formal endorsement of his new war against IS militants. The administration wants a legal basis for the war, known as an authorisation for use of military force, rather than continuing to rely on congressional resolutions granted after 9/11 to justify the invasion of Afghanistan, wage the Iraq war and pursue Al Qaeda elsewhere.

Obama insists he has kept his word to end America's big wars, the occupations and nation-building efforts that began with such promise in both Afghanistan and Iraq but ultimately defied US hopes for clear victories.

In a December 15 speech, Obama said 90 per cent of the troops that were deployed to war zones when he took office are now home.

"The time of deploying large numbers of ground forces with big military footprints to engage in nation-building overseas — that's coming to an end," he said. "Going forward, our military will be leaner" but ready for "a range of missions".

This era of US wars began in Afghanistan. On October 7, 2001, less than a month after teams of terrorists hijacked US airliners and flew them into the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon, America invaded Afghanistan to root out Al Qaeda and topple its host, the Taliban.

By the time Obama took office in January 2009 the US had 34,400 troops in Afghanistan, according to Pentagon records. He tripled the total, to 100,000, in 2010 in a bid to turn the tide and defeat the Taliban. That aim was never achieved; the Taliban took a heavy pounding in 2010-2011, but it remains a force to be reckoned with, in part because of sanctuaries it enjoys in neighbouring Pakistan.

The number of US troops in Afghanistan has dropped to a bit more than 11,000 from about 38,500 in January. But Obama's original plan to go down to 9,800 by the end of this year and limit forces to advising the Afghans and only fighting Al Qaeda — not the Taliban — has changed.

About 1,000 additional US troops will remain in Afghanistan for a few months to fill in for other coalition forces that Washington hopes will arrive by spring 2015. The US will continue to target Taliban insurgents who threaten either Afghans or Americans.

BEIRUT — Jihadists in Syria have threatened to execute Lebanese servicemen they hold captive unless Lebanon releases the ex-wife of the Islamic State group's leader and another militant-linked woman, a negotiator said Tuesday.

Salafist Sheikh Wissam Al Masri is mediating the release of 25 police and soldiers held by IS and the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, the Al Nusra Front.

Masri told reporters IS wrote a letter to him demanding the release of Saja Al Dulaimi, the former wife of IS leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, as well as Ola Sharkas, the wife of Al Nusra commander Anas Sharkas.

The jihadists also called for "the liberation of all female Muslims detained in Lebanon in connection to the war in Syria", Masri said.

Lebanese authorities announced earlier this month the arrests of Dulaimi and Sharkas' wife. Dulaimi had tried to enter Lebanon from Syria with two sons and a daughter, the interior minister said.

The soldiers and police were captured when Syria-based militants briefly overran the Lebanese border town of Arsal in August.

The fighters withdrew after a truce negotiated by clerics, but took 30 hostages.

Four have since been executed, while a fifth died from his injuries in captivity.

GAZA CITY — The Palestinian consensus government has failed to meet its commitment to rebuild the war-torn Gaza Strip, former Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh has said.

Speaking late on Monday shortly after a ministerial delegation from the West Bank arrived in Gaza, Haniyeh accused the government of failing "to keep its commitments, by not carrying out reconstruction, nor unifying institutions under the Palestinian Authority nor organising elections".

The national consensus government took office in June following a reconciliation agreement between Hamas and the Fateh movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, ending seven years of rival administrations in the West Bank and Gaza.

Technocratic in nature, its mandate was to unify governance of the two territories and prepare for elections. It was later tasked with rebuilding Gaza after a deadly summer war with Israel, which claimed nearly 2,200 Palestinian lives.

A spate of bombings last month targeting the property of Fateh officials in Gaza prompted Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to cancel a scheduled visit.

Haniyeh accused the government of acting selectively in a manner that was "harmful" to Gaza and said he was "not optimistic" that the current visit would manage to get things "back on track".

"Unfortunately, the government has not managed to prove it is the government of the entire Palestinian people," said Haniyeh, the Gaza-based deputy head of Hamas’ politburo.

His remarks, broadcast on Hamas’ Al Aqsa television, were made several hours after eight ministers and more than 40 other government officials from Ramallah arrived to kick start the reconstruction of Gaza, which has yet to begin.

The massive task of rebuilding the territory, where more than 96,000 homes were damaged or destroyed leaving more than 100,000 people homeless, has hardly begun, with Palestinian officials accusing Israel of restricting the entry of crucial building supplies.

The unity government was tasked with managing the reconstruction but the process has been bogged down by infighting between Hamas and Fateh.

Diplomatic sources also say a UN-brokered mechanism agreed with Israel and the Palestinians which would facilitate the entry of construction supplies has taken longer than expected to get up and running.

BAGHDAD — The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed the killing of a senior Iranian officer advising Iraqi forces in their fight against the jihadists, in posts on jihadist Internet forums on Monday.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Sunday announced the death of Brigadier General Hamid Taghavi, who had been training the army and Iraqi volunteers in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.

One jihadist forum posted an image of the officer standing next to three others, with a red circle around his head and the caption: "A photo of the miscreant Hamid Taghavi who was killed by the men of IS in the region of Samarra."

Another image on the forum purportedly showed the body of the Iranian officer.

IS has not said how Taghavi died, but his funeral was held in Tehran on Monday in the presence of several senior officials.

"If people like the martyr Taghavi were not engaged in Syria and Iraq against the terrorists, the enemy would surely look to create insecurity in our country," Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani told mourners, the official Fars news agency reported.

Shiite Iran has sent military advisers to Iraq to help train and equip troops and allied militias in their counter-offensive against IS, which seized large areas of the country in a lightning June assault.

It has also armed Kurdish forces in northern Iraq and Iranian media have reported the deaths of several military personnel in both Iraq and Syria this year.

Iranian Defence Minister General Hossein Dehgan on Monday underscored his country’s support for Iraq, during talks in Tehran with his Iraqi counterpart Khaled Al Obeidi.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s support for the army and military forces of Iraq is a strategic policy,” he said, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Tehran is “ready to develop military cooperation with Iraq in order to boost its defensive capacity”, he added.

IRNA said Obeidi also insisted on the “strategic” cooperation between the two neighbours and urged Iran to step up its assistance to Baghdad to fight “terrorism and corruption”.

Iran did not join a US-led coalition conducting air strikes against IS positions in Iraq and neighbouring Syria.

Samarra, 110 kilometres north of Baghdad, is a mainly Sunni city but also home to the Askari shrine, one of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam.

Several Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, have declared the preservation of Iraqi Shiite sites a “red line”.