Iraqi special forces have moved more than 1,000 people from villages near the front lines of the battle to retake the city of Mosul from Islamic State.

French jets struck a suspected Islamic State target in Iraq for the first time, expanding a US-led military campaign against militants who have seized a third of the country and also control large parts of neighbouring Syria.

Islamist militants surged across northern Iraq towards the capital of the Kurdish region yesterday, sending tens of thousands of Christians fleeing for their lives.

ON a scrap of paper, the Kurdish commander drew a line representing the northern front. Then Majid Harki wrote a single word he repeats often to his frontline fighters: “suber” — patience.

US Army tanks rumbled into Baghdad early today for the first time while columns of armoured vehicles began encircling the city.