On June 10, a group of terrorists belonging to al-Qaeda occupied Mosul, a city located in north of Iraq. The incident shows that the violence in provinces having abundant oil resources has upgraded and it may cause sectarian strife in Iraq again.

 

Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq has requested Congress to declare a state of emergency. The Sunni terrorists of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) have captured military bases, police stations and airport in Mosul, forcing security personnels to leave. 

 

Mosul is the capital city of Nineveh. The fall of Mosul makes sectarian strife across Iraq and Syria become more serious. Minority Sunnis consider that they are marginalized for Iraqi government conducted by Shia, making situation exacerbating in further. 

 

The U.S. State Department expressed “deep concern” about the situations in Mosul. It claimed that the terrorists were the threat to the whole area.  

 

Mosul is one of the provinces having the most abundant oil resources. The area includes large oil field in Kirkuk and oil fields in Kurdistan, Iraq. It is estimated the proved reserves of oil reach to 240 trillion barrels. 

 

However, the experts show that the occupation of Mosul is impossible to impact the whole petroleum. Local oilfields have not gone into production and Mosul is far from oilfields in south of Iraq. The output of oilfield in south will be expanded gradually in the next few months.