Timeline: Tracking ISIS' onslaught in Iraq over the last two weeks

Baghdad: A timeline of developments in Iraq, where Sunni Arab militants have in a two-week-old offensive seized major areas of five provinces, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. [caption id=“attachment_1584063” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AP[/caption] June 10 - Hundreds of jihadists, led by fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), seize Iraq’s second biggest city Mosul and swathes of Nineveh province. They also overrun parts of the nearby Kirkuk and Salaheddin provinces. Many members of the security forces shed their uniforms to flee. June 11 - The insurgents seize Tikrit, Salaheddin’s provincial capital. - ISIL storms the Turkish consulate in Mosul, kidnaps the head of the mission and 48 others, after seizing 31 Turkish truck drivers. - ISIL spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani promises the battle will “rage” on Baghdad. June 12 - Kurdish forces take over Kirkuk to protect the oil hub from jihadists. Iraqi Kurds want to make Kirkuk part of their autonomous region. - Iran vows to combat the “violence and terrorism” of Sunni extremists in Iraq. June 13 - Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani urges Iraqis to take up arms against the militants, who are heading to Baghdad along three routes. June 15 - Militants take control of the Al-Adhim area, in eastern Diyala province. June 17 - Militants are repelled by security forces after briefly controlling three areas of Baquba, the confessionally-mixed capital of Diyala, 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Baghdad. June 19 - Government regains full control of Iraq’s biggest oil refinery at Baiji after 24 hours of heavy fighting with militants. - US President Barack Obama says Washington is prepared to send up to 300 military advisers to study how to train and equip Iraqi forces. June 20 - Sistani says Sunni jihadists must be expelled quickly from Iraq and that the next government must be “effective” and avoid “past mistakes”, an apparent rebuke to Shiite Nuri al-Maliki, premier since 2006. June 21-22 - Insurgents take control of three new towns in the western desert province of Anbar: Al-Qaim, the eponymous border crossing with Syria, Rawa and Ana. June 23 - In Baghdad, US Secretary of State John Kerry pledges “intense” support for Iraq against the “existential threat” of the militant offensive. - Insurgents also overrun the strategic Shiite-majority northern town of Tal Afar and its airport, along with the Al-Waleed border crossing with Syria. - Maliki’s security spokesman says “hundreds” of soldiers have been killed since the insurgents launched their offensive on June 9. AFP