Live Blog: The struggle for Iraq

Syria's army has been pounding major bases of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in coordination with the Baghdad government for 24 hours, a monitor said on Sunday.

In Raqa, a town in central Syria considered a pivotal base for ISIL, the air force bombed the area surrounding ISIL's main headquarters in Syria.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also told AFP that Syrian air forces had struck the group's religious courts, adding there were no reported casualties.

Photographs sent by activists in Raqa that could not be independently verified showed craters in the ground and rubble in front of the main gates of the headquarters, a former town hall.

A suicide bomb attack near a Shiite shrine in central Baghdad killed 12 and injured 29 others on Sunday afternoon, reports Anadolu. 

Iraqi MP Hanan Fatlawi, from the ruling State of Law coalition, accused Kurds from the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan of involvement in a "conspiracy to bring down Mosul and occupy Kirkuk."

According to Iraqi news site al-Sumeria, Fatlawi said that Kurdish premier Barzani's "dreams of partitioning Iraq and occupying parts of it will not be realised."

Charles Lister is a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Institute . He specialises in terrorism and insurgency.  

News site Arabi21 has another profile of a pivotal figure in Iraq, this time of Ayatollah al-Sistani.

Born in Iran in 1930, he moved to Iraq but returned to the city of Qom in central Iran in 1951 to complete his religious studies.

He returned to the Iraqi city of Najaf in 1954, and gained popularity as a mufti.

He was arrested after the 1991 Shiite uprising in southern Iraq and detained for a short period.

Though he has up until now been known for avoiding politics all together, he did issue a statement in the run-up to Iraq's 2005 elections urging people to participate in the poll.

Iraqi state television is reporting comments apparently made by revered Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in which he called all citizens, including those living in mixed-sect areas, to exercise "self-control" and to stay away from armed demonstrations taking place outside the legal framework.

According to Noon News Agency, a representative from the scholar's office urged Iraqis to avoid any nationalist or sectarian behaviour harmful to national unity and the social fabric of Iraq.

These comments, if verified, would represent a major turnaround for Sistani, who on Friday called on Iraqis to volunteer to "bear arms and fight terrorists."

Attempts to access Twitter accounts apparently run by ISIL are being met with news that the accounts have been "suspended".

This includes the feeds claimed to represent ISIL in various provinces of Iraq, such as Walayat Diyala, Walayat Salah al-Din, Walayat Baghdad and Walayat Kirkuk.

Users seemingly affiliated to ISIL are reporting that ISIL have complete control of Kirkuk, though these reports could not be independently verified.

Translation: Pictures from Tikrit - a show by jihadists after capturing the capital of Salah al-Din Province 

Dr Burhan Al-Chalabi, former Chairman of the British Iraqi Foundation, told MEE:

The current events in Iraq have clearly demonstrated that Nouri al-Maliki can no longer be the US trusted man in Iraq, who can deliver a safe, secure and unlimited supply of Iraqi oil within the remit of his appointment in the US War for Oil Campaign.

The US has clear choices: either to repeat the mistakes of the Bush administration and impose on Iraq another puppet regime, subservient not only to Washington but also to Tehran and in the process cause more death and destruction in Iraq, or to learn from past mistakes and support the restoration of an independent, secular and sovereign Iraq that will be good for the Iraqi people, as well as for the West who will do business with Iraq.

This can only be achieved by abolishing the sectarian constitution imposed by Viceroy Paul Brimmer on Iraq during the US occupation and beginning a genuine process of democracy, not the sham that has been practised by Nouri al-Maliki to date.

President Obama's administration should not follow in the footsteps of its predecessor the Bush administration by undergoing another military intervention Iraq, regardless of how small-scale it is intended to be. Instead, the US should advise their man in Iraq to step down and allow Iraq to build itself as an independent peaceful state.

Iraqi army sources have told news site al-Masry al-Yawm that the counter-offensive against militants in Salah al-Din province, particularly in its central city Tikrit, is ongoing, and has led to violent clashes on Sunday.

A site apparently controlled by ISIL militants in Salah al-Din posted pictures seeming to show a mass execution of Iraqi soldiers by insurgents north of Tikrit.

al-Arabiya reports that Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has joined Ali al-Sistani in calling on Iraqis to fight "terrorism".

The scholar, who heads the the influential Sadrist movement and officially withdrew from politics in February 2013, reportedly called on people to confront "militias trying to turn Iraq into a mess."

Head of Iran's state-owned Gas Engineering and Development Company has announced that a pipeline carrying natural gas from Iran to Iraq will be completed by the end of March 2015, reports Press TV.

According to agreements signed by both countries, the pipeline will eventually carry seven million cubic metres of natural gas to Iraq daily.

State-owned Al Iraqia slams media outlets for broadcasting "lies" about the unrest in Iraq.

On Sunday afternoon the channel showed a special segment, singling out the pan-Arab outlets al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya as well as Iraqi channel al-Taghier TV for biased reporting of the recent clashes.

Baghdad security and medical officials confirm a bombing that killed nine people on Sunday and injured 23.

A police colonel told AFP that the initial roadside bomb was followed by a suicide bomb.

Translation: Kids from Mosul on top of the Maliki army armoured tanks

Militants are now in control of the al-Sejer region north of Fallujah, after Iraqi troops apparently withdraw from most of Fallujah, according to a source quoted by Anadolu.

"Iraqi army troops started withdrawing from most of Fallujah regions, with no clear reason, which allowed the armed groups led by ISIL militants to restore most of these areas without fighting", the unnamed source said, adding that the militants capture an unidentified number of Iraqi troops and requisitioned their arms.