18/06/2014 World News Today

This is BBC World News Today with me, Philippa Thomas.

Baghdad has formally called on the United States to launch air

North of Baghdad, the two sides have been fighting for control of Iraq's

Iraq's Prime Minister vows to drive back Islamist militants.

Meanwhile, President Hamid Karzai tells the BBC the escalating

sectarian violence in Iraq will not be repeated in Afghanistan.

Also coming up: Ending his reign with a hug and a kiss. Spain's King

Spain's King Juan Carlos signs the abdication act that will give

The throne to his son. And I am Jon Sopel in Brazil, where

the Netherlands look certain to progress after beating Australia,

which means Spain, the world champions, must avoid defeat to

ensure staying in. The Iraqi Government has formally

called on the United States to strikes against jihadist militants.

A battle is being waged over Iraq's biggest oil refinery as extremists

and government forces fight to take control.

The government claims it has now driven out ISIS extremists from the

refinery which lies about 100 miles north of the capital Baghdad in the

town of Baiji. But some rebels have claimed they hold three-quarters of

the plant. The Iraqi Prime minister Nouri

Maliki has again urged his countrymen, in a televised speech,

to unite against ISIS. My colleague Yalda Hakim is charting

the progress of the ISIS forces from Irbil in northern Iraq, not far from

Mosul, the first city to fall in Yalda, over to you.

Well, we spent the day on the outskirts of Irbil, 40 minutes away

from Mosul, which is where the insurgents in ISIS are at the moment

and have control. We saw so many people leaving Mosul for a safe

haven in Irbil. There are concerns this could lead to all-out sectarian

war, the kind of fighting we saw in 2006 and 2007. Across the country,

the battlefield keeps changing and the situation is very fluid at the

moment. Just south of Kirkup, in bhaji, there has been fighting

between Sunni insurgents and the Army -- Baiji.

Another day, and another assault by ISIS.

These images seemed to show the Sunni extremists triumphantly

entering Baiji, around 100 miles from the capital,

and making the most of the military equipment they have

Baiji is home to Iraq's largest oil refinery and in the past 24 hours,

We can't verify these images but they appear to show smoke rising

We were taken by the government to the west of Baghdad.

To see their special forces in action.

They were carrying out vehicle checks.

They appeared well armed and equipped

and said they were already battle hardened and ready to take on ISIS.

We fight them in Ramadi, Fallujah, we fight in Samarra too

So any time, you know, anywhere, we go and we fight them.

Do you think they will come to Baghdad?

This is a carefully choreographed media opportunity by the Iraqi

government to show off their best troops, their special forces

and to underline that they are in control of the capital Baghdad.

The reality is, though, that ISIS is still fighting

These are the latest volunteers for the Iraqi army.

They are still learning to march and how to fire their weapons.

And so far, government forces have proved unable to halt the advance

There is still evidence too of a sectarian divide.

They are chanting the name of the leading Shia cleric.

Yet Iraq's Prime Minister, addressing the nation,

still insists that despite failings, they are united.

TRANSLATION: Not every setback is a defeat.

This has allowed Iraq to recovered national unity.

This has allowed Iraq to recover national unity.

Not a single Iraqi would benefit from this crisis.

Only the terrorists will benefit and those who trade in arms.

Those who start the fire are burned by fire.

But if anyone thought ISIS was a disorganised, disparate group,

here is some evidence to make them think again.

This is their annual report for 2013, a slick document that

boasts of over 1,000 assassinations and more than 500 car bombings.

For Iraq, it is now a fight for survival.

Here, Kurdish militia are seen taking

Even if they can be defeated, ISIS has already opened up a sectarian

Today in Irbil, we have been hearing about people returning to Mosul,

trying to find some normality in their lives, but the crisis in Iraq

continues. Back to you in London. Yalda, thank you very much, from

Irbil in northern Iraq. With me in this year is professor Ali Ansari, a

specialist on Iran from the University of St Andrews in

Scotland, and joining me from Washington is David Gordon, head of

research with the Eurasia Group. He's worked at the highest levels

of foreign and national security, including the US State Department

and the National Intelligence Council.

Welcome both to world news today. -- World News Today. President Obama is

talking through with congressional leaders right now whether there

should be as strikes? Right, and I think the president's intention is

to walk what is going to be very tough line to walk. On the one

hand, I think that the United States is extremely worried about ISIS and

about the prospect of ISIS carving out large sections of northern and

western Iraq as an area that is a no-go zone for governing. On the

other hand, I think the president is very wary about getting involved

directly in what is increasingly looking like a sectarian civil war,

and so I think that the military option is that the United States is

going to get to hear are really going to focus on degrading ISIS and

particularly the ISIS leadership capabilities through drone strikes

and such activities, rather than engagement in the actual military

campaign on the side of the Iraqi government. Ali Ansari, if the US is

seen to be making common cause with Iran on tying to -- trying to

degrade ISIS, that will cause political problems in Washington

too. Is it likely to happen? This is not entirely new, we have seen

similar conflicts of interest with the Taliban in Afghanistan. We have

seen it where the United States and Afghanistan, for different reasons,

have approached the same targets and it has worked, in some ways, over

the last decade, in Iran's favour but in this case, it would be

interesting to see what sort of cooperation, and I wouldn't want to

say it is direct or intimate in any way, but what it would do to the

mood in Tehran itself, because obviously they view toward the

United States in official circles has been deeply antagonistic, but

the United States could be of assistance here. He gets the point

you are talking about the object, I suppose. America is talking about in

a future Iraq and Iran would be looking towards Shia interests. I

think divergences... The immediate problem is getting rid of ISIS and

we are looking at trust building, and we had to be quite modest in

what we can expect but there is the possibility that something could

emerge from this. David Gordon, you are talking about the limited

American appetite for military intervention. If getting that limit

means turning a blind eye to what Iran is doing, saying to -- say to

protect Shia shrines, cannot work from an American perspective? I

think the US here is not going to want to be seen at or as working

directly or even in the same course as Iran, and that is what this fine

line that I was talking about before means. -- same cause. The United

States is going to engage you in a counterterrorism operation, rather

than abroad operation to support the Shia dominated government and, of

course, President Obama made very clear last week that what he is

urging on Prime Minister Maliki is to build much more consensus -based

political centre in Iraq. That is not going to happen. I mean, right

now, for Maliki, the only part way forward is to mobilise the sheer

face, both in the conventional forces and through trying to -- Shia

base, both in the conventional forces and militias that are being

formed to support the army, so I don't see any US collaboration here,

even at the level of rhetoric, with the Iranians. It is true, and Ali

Ansari is right, that both the US and Iran share an interest in

degrading ISIS, and that is true. The hope for the United States...

Let me just bring in Ali Ansari on this a game, is there an Iranian

interest in Iraq holding together or not? I think there is at the moment

and one of the reasons is that Nouri al-Maliki is seen as Iran's man

effectively, so why sees any part of -- sees any part of Iraq when you

have what you may see as a client there. What you do have in the

United States is that Nouri al-Maliki hasn't done a terribly

good job, he has been fairly exclusive and alienated the Sunnis

and it will be interesting to see if they look at this in Tehran with a

little more sober reflection and say, we have troubles in Syria,

prolonged in in a prolonged struggle there, so we don't need anything on

our doorstep even more messy, so what sort of political arrangements

do we need to need to make to make sure this doesn't happen? Ali Ansari

David Gordon, sorry to cut you off, but thank you both for your insight.

It does seem as if Iraq has erupted after a delayed three years after

the American troops left. National Intelligence Council.

Is there a danger that something similar

could happen in Afghanistan, where US troops are due to finish combat

operations by the end of this year? Every morning, President Karzai

walks to the office with bodyguards He lives and works inside this

heavily protected palace. Taliban threats mean he very

rarely leaves his fortress. The men in his security cabinet have

worked alongside NATO forces for more than a decade, but like Iraq,

foreign combat troops are pulling out and there is concern Al-Qaeda

linked groups could make a comeback. So many around the world are now

asking, Afghans are asking, whether what is happening in Iraq

could happen in Afghanistan. I am confident about the Afghan

people. Yes, we do need international

support, where we don't have That is welcome,

for that we are grateful. But the keeping of the country,

the protection of the country, This government refused to take up

the offer of a strategic pact with the United States

which would have meant a long-term But the two men vying to be the next

president have both said they will sign the deal and that could help

Afghanistan avoid some of the worst For years,

many doubted there would even be Now the president checks goodbye

letters he will soon send to foreign leaders, including this one to

David Cameron. Mr President, what are you going to

say to the British Prime Minister I will thank him,

and the British people, for the help You have said that NATO forces have

done nothing good for Afghanistan, I said, as I have done on lots

of occasions, that the war on terror was not to be fought

in Afghan villages or Afghan homes. That the real war on terror is in

the sanctuary is beyond our borders. But as far as Mr Cameron is

concerned, he has been a good friend As the president walks home, his

aides discuss her insurgents chopped off the fingers of 11 Afghans who

voted in last week's elections. " What is happening in this country?",

he sighs. As Hamid Karzai prepares to move out

of this palace with his young family, his country moves

towards an uncertain future. Without the peace he

and his allies promised planning on the lateral cease fire

this. With me is the author and Washington

Post columnist, Anne Applebaum. She's written extensively about

Eastern Europe. --unilateral My school began the

fighting in the first place. --Moscow The military operations of

Ukraine where design to defend their country rather than than to attack

people. Is this because the sanctions are hurting? I am not sure

President Putin has agreed and the Russians have been very quiet about

what the well will not do and have been trying to keep the conflict

under the radar. We know that the sanctions have had an impact, more

indirectly, on business confidence and general confidence and he may be

feeling some of that or maybe feeling that the attempt to create a

separatist movement in eastern Ukraine has failed. It is very

different to Crimea, from his point of view? We do not know how the

Crimea situation will end either. But in eastern Ukraine they have

failed to achieve what they seem to set out to achieve. There may be all

this talk about the temperatures that it depends on what separatist

this site to do? Yes, the satirists and people who are funding them and

arming them. When they cease to have that support it becomes a very

different operation. Do you think they are centrally controlled rather

than more tournaments? --autonomous? Some of them are local and are also

some from outside, from places such as Russia. All the ammunition is

coming from Russia. It may be coming from different sources but it is

coming into the country from Russia. Another thing that is coming in from

Russia may not be as gas. Yes, the dispute on gas is an old one. This

is the third time that Russia has cut off gas from the Ukraine. It is

a very conjugated negotiation involving questions of high payments

are being used and I would not wonder one to get into this. --want

to get into this. Now a look at some of the day's

other news. There's been a sharp increase

in the number of people who have died from the outbreak of Ebola

disease in west Africa. Figures from the

World Health Organisation show that in the past week a total of nearly a

hundred people were recorded to have died in the three countries affected

- Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. This compares with

a cumulative total of 337 deaths At least 21 people who were

watching a World Cup match have been killed in a bomb blast

in northern Nigeria. The attack happened in Yobe state,

with witnesses saying a suicide bomber

on a tricycle taxi in Damaturu detonated explosives as people

watched Brazil's match against China's continuing programme

of economic modernisation will open up enormous opportunities

for British firms, according to He was speaking alongside British

finance minister George Osborne on the final full day

of his visit to Britain. He described the opportunity

as "win-win co-operation." Prince Felipe of Spain becomes king

at midnight - that's four hours from now in a country still

scarred by years of economic crisis. Juan Carlos signed a bill formally

abdicating power, at the royal palace in Madrid. Our Europe

correspondent Chris Morris is in This is a last act of a man who has

been on the throne of Spain for four decades. He helped free Spain from

the dictatorship of General Franco. There was applause for the long

reign to come to an end. The king said it was time for a new

generation take over. This historic Royal palaces will soon welcomed the

new King after he is sworn in as head of state on Thursday morning.

There will be no correlation and no foreign dignitaries royalty have

been invited. It is all deliberately low-key. This is the new king, he is

46-year-old. The Royal family has been hit by scandal and the last few

years and the country buffeted by economic crisis. He will have to try

to rehabilitate the image of the monarchy as a unifying institution.

He does not have the historical baggage which is father has and will

be able to perform this role again, the idea that the monarchy can help

to keep together the different territories and peoples and the

different nations that make up the Spanish state. That is definitely a

key role for him to try to play. There are those vocal and quite

substantial minority, who want a referendum on the future of the

monarchy. Many of them are supporters of republicanism. These

are challenging times and it cannot be business as usual for the new

cane but the Spanish flags are flying and most people here seem

prepared to give the new King chance.

Day Seven of the World cup, and it's already hotting up in Brazil.

It's do-or-die for defending champions Spain and a definite

contender for goal of tournament in the early match between

Let's go to Rio and join Jon Sopel later, for the

In the latest World Cup game, which finished half an hour ago, the

two. to beat Australia by three goals to

Arjen Robben opened the scoring as he sprinted clear from halfway and

seconds before Tim Cahill responded with a stunning volley. 1-1 at

halftime. The underdogs then took the

lead as Jedinak scored for Australia from the penalty spot after Janmaat

was adjudged to have handled the ball.

Again the lead was short-lived, as

Robin Van Persie scored for the Dutch.

And it was Van Persie who scored

Coming up next, a must-win game for Spain against Chile at the

the group A game in Manaus between Cameroon and Croatia - the loser

A number of Chilean fans without tickets have stormed in the press

centre press centre. The authorities are trying to restore some order

they are but that game is due to kick off in about 35 minutes and we

will keep you fully up-to-date with that. It is really crucial for

Spain, is it not? Spain come in as the champions and the other

fantastically gifted side but they were made to look absolutely

ordinary by the Dutch when they lost five goals to one. If chilly winter

night they when --Chile win. Then they will head the group. It is

hoped that a man in a cave who was trapped underground will be back

over ground in a couple of days. Thank you for watching, now time for

the weather. Yesterday Scotland and Northern Ireland had the highest

temperature of the year so far. We have had similar temperatures today

and I have been hot and humid days across Scotland and Northern Ireland

but this has