Thousands of Iraqi men answer urgent call to arms

BAGHDAD — Thousands of Shiites from Baghdad and across southern Iraq answered an urgent call to arms Saturday, joining security forces to fight the Islamic militants who have captured large swaths of territory north of the capital and now imperil a city with a much-revered religious shrine.

The mobilization, urged by the nation's top Shiite cleric, took on a sectarian dimension that threatened to intensify Sunni-Shiite strife in a nation already ripped by religious fervor after the militants' battlefield successes.

In Baghdad, fallout from the stunning advance in the north was beginning to affect daily life for the city's 7 million inhabitants.

Some food prices rose dramatically. Army troops went house-to-house searching for militants and weapons in neighborhoods close to vital government installations. The streets of the capital were quieter than usual, and military and police checkpoints made extra efforts to check cars and passenger IDs.

The price hikes were partly the result of transportation disruptions on the main road linking the capital with provinces to the north, but they might also be a telltale sign of a nervous city.

"We were not prepared for this sudden spike in the prices of foodstuff, vegetables and fuel," said Yasser Abbas, a government employee from Baghdad's sprawling eastern Sadr City district.

"I do not know how the poor people in Baghdad will manage their life in the coming days. God be with them until this crisis is over because hunger is as dangerous as bullets."

In the meantime, dozens of men climbed into the back of army trucks at volunteer centers, chanting Shiite religious slogans, hoisting assault rifles and pledging to join the nation's beleaguered security forces to battle the Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL.

"By God's will, we will be victorious." said one volunteer, Ali Saleh Aziz. "We will not be stopped by the ISIL or any other terrorists."

The volunteers were first taken to an assembly center in eastern Baghdad, where they were handed military uniforms, and later went to Taji, home of Iraq's largest military base north of Baghdad, to undergo basic training. State-run television aired footage of the volunteers being drilled, still in their civilian clothes.

The mobilization unfolded against a backdrop of religious and nationalist fervor. State-run television aired a constant flow of nationalist songs, clips of soldiers marching or singing, as well as interviews with troops vowing to crush the militants. Other broadcasts included archival clips of the nation's top Shiite clerics and aerial shots of Shiite shrines.

Shiite cleric and political leader Ammar al-Hakim was shown on television networks donning camouflaged military fatigues as he spoke to volunteers from his party, although he still wore his clerical black turban that designates him as a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite widely resented by Sunnis for his perceived sectarian policies, denied the call by the Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani was directed against Sunnis, saying it was in fact meant to protect the country and its holy shrines.

"Talk of Sunnis and Shiites must be dropped," he said, calling for the unity of all Iraqis.

Many volunteers, however, said they had enlisted to protect their faith and shrines at risk in the city of Samarra north of Baghdad and elsewhere. The militants have threatened to march all the way south to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, home to two of the most revered Shiite shrines.

Al-Maliki himself appeared to give the standoff with ISIL a sectarian color, paying a surprise visit to Samarra on Friday and appearing on state-run television while praying there. The shrine was badly damaged in a bombing blamed on Sunni extremists in 2006. That attack sparked a wave of bloodletting between Sunnis and Shiites that lasted two years. The bloodshed ebbed in 2008 after the U.S. troop surge, a revolt by moderate Sunnis against al-Qaida in Iraq and a Shiite militia cease-fire.

The footage seemed clearly aimed at rehabilitating his reputation in the eyes of Shiites as a protector of the faith and its followers. He also declared that Samarra would be the assembly point for the march north to drive out the militants, another apparent religious incentive to Shiites.

On Saturday evening, a dozen armed militiamen got off a bus on a main central Baghdad road and chanted Shiite slogans before driving away.

Fighters from the al-Qaida splinter group, drawing support from former Saddam Hussein-era figures and other disaffected Sunnis, have made dramatic gains in the Sunni heartland north of Baghdad after overrunning Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul on Tuesday. Soldiers and policemen have melted away in the face of the lightning advance, and thousands have fled to the self-ruling Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

On Saturday, insurgents seized the small town of Adeim in Diyala province after Iraqi security forces pulled out, said the head of the municipal council, Mohammed Dhifan. Adeim is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad. There was no official confirmation of the loss of the town.

Jawad al-Bolani, a lawmaker and former Cabinet minister close to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said a military offensive was underway Saturday to drive the insurgents from Tikrit, Saddam's hometown north of Baghdad, although fighting in the area could not be confirmed.

Major-General Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman for the Iraqi military's commander in chief, said Iraq's armed forces have "regained the initiative" in the north and northeast, blunting ISIL advances and regaining control of some localities.

As President Barack Obama considers possible military options for Iraq, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush to move from the northern Arabian Sea into the Persian Gulf. The carrier was to be accompanied by two guided-missile ships.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday that his Shiite nation stands ready to help Iraq if asked, adding that it has "no option but to confront terrorism."

He said Iran would "study if there is a demand for help from Iraq" but that no specific request for assistance had been made.

Entry of Iranian forces into Iraq "has not been raised so far," and "it's unlikely that such conditions will emerge," he added.

Iran has built close political and economic ties with Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam's Sunni-led regime.

Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report.

Iraqi soldier who fought with Americans says decision to flee left him feeling ashamed

On Day Four of clashes in Mosul between encroaching jihadists and Iraqi security forces, two officers visited an outpost of the Iraqi 2nd Division’s logistics battalion with bad news: they said that all senior commanders had fled.

Stunned and confused, the men called headquarters and received the same information, that all officers colonel and above had abandoned their posts. This evaporation of the officer corps, followed quickly by the rank and file, gave wide berth to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the extremist group whose capture of northwestern Iraqi territories has brought the country once again to the brink of civil war.

For the ordinary Iraqi soldiers who followed their officers in flight, the unraveling of their nation also brought a deep sense of personal shame and betrayal, said Pvt. First Class Mohammed al Nasseri, who insisted he be identified by a pseudonym because the government has threatened to prosecute deserters.

“I wish I’d been killed rather than live with the humiliation of this return,” Nasseri said.

He shared his account by telephone from his southern hometown of Nasiriyah, where he was still struggling to come to terms with his decision to flee even as he braced for a stream of friends and relatives to show up as part of a tradition to welcome loved ones back from an arduous journey.

Nasseri’s anger was fresh, and he couldn’t help but compare the performance of the Iraqi officers with that of the U.S. military leaders who trained him and the U.S. forces he fought alongside as part of a quick-response team in the insurgent flashpoint of Fallujah years ago. His account, detailed but impossible to independently confirm, painted a picture of a corrupt military leadership that shook down soldiers for cash, kept nonexistent service members on the payroll, and showed up to standard only on the rare occasion Baghdad sends an inspector.

Had the Iraqi military brass in Mosul been chosen because of competency rather than cronyism, Nasseri suggested, perhaps the Islamic State’s march toward Baghdad could’ve been halted, or at least stalled.

“I know what I need to know about fighting in a city,” Nasseri said. “I fought side by side with Americans. Their military has leaders that tell the soldiers what the plan is, and fight. We don’t. There were many more terrorists in Fallujah and the fight was over in a month. (Mosul) wouldn’t have been a big problem if we had leaders.”

Five days after Mosul’s fall late Monday, Iraq on Saturday remained a country spinning apart. While spokesmen for the Iraqi military insisted that the army had halted the ISIS advance at such key towns as Samarra, 70 miles from Baghdad, there was scant evidence of any significant combat and little sign that ISIS and its allies from a collection of Sunni Muslim militias had been pushed back in any significant way.

The Reuters news agency reported fighting at Udhaim, 60 miles north of Baghdad, and Peter Bouckeart, the emergencies director for the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, posted on Facebook that ISIS was receiving mortar fire in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein’s hometown, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Baghdad. Reuters, citing Tikrit residents, said ISIS forces had booby trapped the entrances to the city in preparation for an assault from the Iraqi military.

In an email to McClatchy, an Iraqi journalist reported that the capital remained “stunned” at ISIS’s rapid advance. Thousands of Shiite Muslims have mustered in the city, answering a call from the country’s most important Shiite cleric, the Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, to bolster the Iraqi army. “If the fight comes to Baghdad there will be carnage,” the journalist wrote, asking not to be identified by name out of security concerns.

Nasseri’s account of his flight makes it seem unlikely that the Iraqi army would soon gain the initiative.

Nasseri said his battalion was supposed to be focused on supplies and transportation, but that the Iraqi military is so poorly organized that he and other logistics soldiers often were sent on raids and other combat-related missions. Nasseri, who said his unit was made up almost exclusively of Shiite Muslims from the fairly homogenous south, said he had spent the past seven years in Mosul and had come to know well the diverse city of Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs and Kurds.

Nasseri served on the east side of Mosul, in a district named “Saddam,” a vestige of the former regime of Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. On June 5, the first day of the jihadists’ foray into Mosul, a commercial city of 2 million that had long been an Islamic State cash cow and recruiting ground, Nasseri’s unit got word of suspicious men openly carrying arms in the Saddam district.

“We gathered in the division’s headquarters and we headed there,” Nasseri recalled. “I saw two of the gunmen upon our arrival. We fought from street to street as we chased them. They went into a house, but we didn’t go after them.”

Instead, Nasseri said, a brigadier general called in reinforcements that specialize in defusing bombs; he said he thought a helicopter gunship also attacked the house because of fears that the extremist fighters were strapped with explosives. For the next four hours, Nasseri said, his unit moved from rooftop to rooftop as gunfire crackled around them.

“By the end of the night, we secured the neighborhood,” he said. “We stayed there until the fall of Mosul.”

Nasseri said that a local man would come out to check on the soldiers — he was welcomed because he was a Kurd from the Birwari tribe, not like local Sunni Arabs who are more hostile to what they view as a Shiite sectarian military. But the Kurdish stranger’s in-depth knowledge of the military’s Mosul operations was unsettling, Nasseri said.

“He knew too much,” Nasseri said, recalling that the man knew of an attack on a general, which soldiers had been killed and insider scuttle from the division. When questioned about his sources of information, Nasseri said, the man explained that he was friends with a captain from the division.

Then, on the night Mosul fell, the Kurd returned to the unit and made an unusual request.

“He asked me to leave,” Nasseri recalled. “He said, ‘Go back to your children and wife. Everything is over. Protect your life.’ He kept insisting on this for four hours that night.”

The man gave Nasseri his phone number and made him promise to call.

Later, the two officers visited and told the soldiers that they were the last commanders who hadn’t deserted. “The skies were filled with bullets; the sky turned red,” Nasser said of his last night in Mosul. “I told my fellow soldiers, ‘Don’t be afraid, these are our bullets. Our guys are retreating.’ We shoot everywhere to secure ourselves.”

Nasseri said he stopped a Humvee and asked the soldiers inside what had prompted them to leave: Did you see gunmen? Did you engage in clashes?

“They said no, but that all the generals had fled and no one was left,” Nasseri said.

His unit linked up with a nearby battalion of the Kurdish militia known as peshmerga. Nasseri said he still couldn’t figure out the mass flight — from where he stood, he saw no gunmen, the army’s posts were standing and the clashes seemed concentrated on the west side of Mosul.

Nevertheless, he said, he handed his uniform, military ID and rifle to a friend in a small Christian village, asking him to keep it safe. Nasseri then set off on an uncertain path south, a journey that typically cost him 60,000 Iraqi dinars, about $50, but this time would require 1 million dinars, around $860, all the funds he had on him.

Nasseri said the Kurdish fighters wouldn’t allow the fleeing soldiers to escape through their territories, so they were forced to go back through Mosul. He harbors bitterness toward the Kurds for denying the Iraqi troops access and said that rumors abound of Kurdish complicity in the assault on Mosul, which could strengthen their case for an independent state if the central government in Baghdad collapses.

“I took a cab, then rode in the back of a pickup truck from village to village, and then walked for miles and miles,” Nasseri recalled, rattling off some of his stops, including Kirkuk and Khanaqin. “I can’t recall the names of all the towns; there were so many. I was thirsty, tired and afraid.”

Nasseri said he saw no gunmen, just an eerie tableau of abandoned police vehicles, discarded uniforms and Humvees whose operators had left in a hurry. Opportunistic drivers charged deserters exponentially more than the usual fares: “They knew we would pay, and we did.”

Only now that he’s safely back home in Nasiriyah has he had a moment to go over those heady events and realize the implications for the country. He called the Kurdish stranger who’d tipped him off about the collapse; he said the man finally admitted that he was a major from the Kurdish intelligence apparatus.

Nasseri said he’d return to the fight, but only because of Sistani’s call to arms — not for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki or for the “corrupt” Shiite political elite he holds responsible for the military’s collapse.

“We felt that we were sold off. The army is broken,” Nasseri said. “I’m still in shock. I can’t understand it — how did all of this happen, and so fast?”

“It is true I was there for the salary,” Nasseri added, “but I was honored to fight the terrorists.”

———

(Mohammed Al Dulaimy is a McClatchy special correspondent; he reported from Columbia, S.C. Hannah Allam reported from Plano, Texas. A McClatchy special correspondent whose name is being withheld for security reasons reported from Baghdad.)

Ukraine vows to punish rebels who downed plane

NOVOHANNIVKA, Ukraine — Ukraine's new president declared Sunday a day of mourning and vowed to punish those responsible after pro-Russia separatists shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane, killing all 49 crew and troops aboard.

It was a bitter setback for the Ukrainian forces — the deadliest single incident yet in their escalating battle against an armed insurgency that the government, backed by the U.S., insists is supported by Russia.

The downing of the plane drew condemnation and concern from the White House, European leaders and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon. Analysts said it could bring a renewed emphasis on increasing sanctions against Russia.

"(This) will refocus attention on the fact that Russia does not seem to be doing very much to moderate the insurgency (or) the cross-border resupply of separatists," said Timothy Ash, an analyst at Standard Bank PLC. "I would expect the focus to return to sanctions next week."

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko spoke firmly to glum-faced security officials at a televised emergency meeting Saturday, scolding the head of the country's SBU security service for "omissions" in measures to protect military aircraft.

Poroshenko called for "a detailed analysis of the reasons" for the lapse and hinted that personnel changes were imminent. His office said he vowed to punish "those responsible for the tragedy in Luhansk."

In a conversation with French President Francois Hollande, Poroshenko expressed hope that the European Union would decide on further sanctions against Russia if what he called the illegal border crossings and the supply of weapons did not cease.

Nine crew and 40 troops were aboard the Il-76 troop transport when it went down early Saturday as it approached the airport at Luhansk, the Ukrainian prosecutor general's office said.

The plane's tail section and other pieces of scorched wreckage lay in a field near the village of Novohannivka, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Luhansk. An Associated Press reporter saw a dozen or more armed separatists inspecting the crash site.

Defense Ministry spokesman Bohdan Senyk said the rebels used anti-aircraft guns and a heavy machine gun to down the plane, while the prosecutor general's office said rebels used an anti-aircraft missile.

Luhansk, a city near the border with Russia, is one of two eastern areas where separatists have seized government buildings and declared independence. Ukrainian forces still control the Luhansk airport.

In other fighting, five border guards were killed and seven wounded Saturday in the southern port of Mariupol when their column of vehicles was ambushed, the guards service said.

The U.S. government reiterated its support for Poroshenko's government and rejected Russia's statements that it was not arming the rebels. The U.S. said Russia had sent tanks and rocket launchers to the rebels, making sure the unmarked tanks were of a type not currently being used by Russian forces.

"We condemn the shooting down of the Ukrainian military plane and continue to be deeply concerned about the situation in eastern Ukraine, including by the fact that militant and separatist groups have received heavy weapons from Russia, including tanks, which is a significant escalation," said White House spokeswoman Laura Lucas Magnuson.

Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel jointly called Russian President Vladimir Putin to express their "dismay" over the downing of the plane and said the incident makes clear how urgent a cease-fire is, German government spokesman Georg Streiter said.

Merkel stressed that, for a cease-fire to last, Russia must better control its border with Ukraine to stem the flow of weapons and fighters and the Russian government must also exert its influence on pro-Russia rebels.

The Kiev government has accused Russia of permitting three tanks to cross the border this week into eastern Ukraine, where they were used by rebels. Russia denies supplying the separatists and says Russians fighting in Ukraine are volunteers.

Moscow did not respond to the tank reports but instead accused the Ukrainian military of violating the border several times, including when an armored vehicle ventured about 150 meters (yards) Friday into Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry warned Saturday if the incursions continued it would "take all necessary measures to suppress them."

NATO, meanwhile, released images Saturday that it said showed recent Russian tank movements near the border. It said the tanks seen in eastern Ukraine "do not bear markings or camouflage paint like those used by the Ukrainian military." It said those tactics were used by the Russians who had seized Crimea in March.

Tensions between Ukraine and Russia escalated in February after pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was driven from office by protesters who wanted closer ties with the European Union and an end to the country's endemic corruption. Russia then seized and annexed Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea.

The U.S. and Europe rejected the annexation and responded with financial sanctions targeting individuals. They have threatened to further extend the sanctions to the Russian economy.

In Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, the European Union's energy commissioner joined officials from Ukraine and Russia for talks late Saturday on the two nations' bitter natural gas dispute. Those participating included Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and the head of Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz.

Russia says Ukraine owes billions in unpaid gas debts and has set a deadline of Monday before it will demand upfront payments for gas supplies. Ukraine disputes the debt amount and, with its economy in dire straits after the departure of Yanukovych, has little ability to repay. The two sides were also negotiating the price Ukraine will pay for future gas supplies.

Also in Kiev, about a hundred protesters hurled eggs and paint Saturday at the Russian Embassy and overturned several parked cars with diplomatic plates. One held a sign saying "Russia is a killer."

McHugh contributed from Kiev. Lynn Berry in Moscow contributed reporting.

Political turmoil could give Calif. rocket firm edge over Russians

Political fallout over the seizure of Crimea has caused the U.S. government to rethink its partnership with Russia on space programs, which has bolstered business prospects for a historic California rocket company.

Engineers at Aerojet Rocketdyne in Canoga Park are designing a new liquid-fuel rocket engine that would directly compete against one built by a Russian company that's currently used on high-profile launches.

If Aerojet Rocketdyne does end up building the replacement engine, it could mean millions of dollars' worth of contracts and years of work for employees in Canoga Park, who have been stung by layoffs and program cancellations for years.

"It's a potential game-changer on many fronts," said Warren M. Boley, Aerojet Rocketdyne president. "It would build on our ongoing legacy."

If the federal government ultimately decides to buy the idea, it would mark a return to the ingenuity of the rocket engine manufacturing business that helped pioneer space exploration. Aerojet Rocketdyne supplied the colossal Saturn V rocket's major engines for the Apollo moon shots. The company also built the shuttle's reusable main engines.

Game-changing new generations of large rocket engines like these have not been developed since NASA's funding dried up and its manned space program waned.

Although many herald the emergence of Hawthorne upstart Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, its Merlin rocket engine is based on decades-old technology.

"There just hasn't been enough government investment," said Daniel Gouré, national security analyst with the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va. "A new engine would free us from dependence on Russia. This is an important undertaking from an economic, jobs and national security perspective."

Now, Aerojet Rocketdyne is developing the AR-1, the first engine to be built since Aerojet and Rocketdyne merged last year to become the nation's sole provider of large liquid-fuel rocket engines.

The engine, which would provide 500,000 pounds of thrust, could be installed on a variety of rockets, such as SpaceX's Falcon 9 or Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Antares. But perhaps the most promising is United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket, which now uses a Russian-made engine, the RD-180.

United Launch Alliance is a joint venture of the nation's two largest weapons makers, Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. As it stands, United Launch Alliance is the sole provider to the Air Force of rockets to launch its school-bus-size satellites for spying, weather forecasting, communications, GPS and other experimental purposes.

The RD-180 engine provides the main thrust for the rocket. The arrangement with Russia, though, is showing some strain.

Last month, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin suggested that his nation might halt U.S. access to its launch vehicles and may use the International Space Station without American participation.

In the wake of Russia's seizure of Crimea, the Pentagon asked the Air Force to review United Launch Alliance's use of the Russian RD-180 engine.

United Launch Alliance said it was not aware of any restrictions. But even if an embargo on the engines takes effect, the company says, it has stockpiled a two-year supply.

Aerojet Rocketdyne said AR-1 engines wouldn't be ready until 2019, and will probably cost up to $25 million for a pair.

The company said it has already spent about $300 million on research and development of the AR-1. No decision has been made on where the engine will be assembled, but there's a good chance that it will be Canoga Park.

Rocketdyne engineers were at the forefront of developing engines in the days of slide rules and drafting tables, before advanced computers took a central role.

It was here that the biggest engines in NASA's manned spaceflight program were put together: the mighty F-1s on the Saturn V and the dependable Space Shuttle's main engines.

Once swarming with engineers and technicians toiling on various programs, the storied site in Canoga Park is now empty. The scores of massive machines once humming and churning out parts for spacecraft sit dormant.

The remaining workforce of about 1,000 has been moved to a facility a few miles away on DeSoto Avenue.

Japan, Australia agree to develop stealth submarine technology

TOKYO — Japan and Australia agreed Wednesday to jointly develop stealth submarine technology, as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushes his country toward a more assertive global military role.

The submarine technology was a top item at talks among the nations' foreign and defense ministers in Tokyo and was included in an agreement to step up cooperation in defense equipment and technology.

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told a joint news conference after the talks that the ministers agreed to begin the research next year. It will focus on technology that is applicable to any vessel including submarines, he said, but declined to give further details.

"I have high expectations for successful results," he said. Onodera said the research and possible technology transfer would not violate Japan's pacifist constitution.

Onodera and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida were joined by their Australian counterparts, Julie Bishop and David Johnston, at Wednesday's meeting. The four also agreed to strengthen military ties.

The research aims to develop faster submarines with reduced water resistance and quieter propellers, Japanese defense officials said earlier this week. But the joint research will not necessarily lead to the sale of Japanese submarines to Australia, which is exploring purchasing submarines from Germany and France as well.

The research, however, widens the possibility of Japan supplying military technology overseas. The Abe government in April eased Japan's self-imposed limits on military exports, paving the way for its largely domestic defense industry to go global. Japan has also agreed to develop hazmat suits with Britain, and is seeking to export search and rescue aircraft to India.

Abe says the U.S.-Japan alliance remains central to his security policy but has widened defense cooperation with Britain, France, India and several Asian-Pacific nations, particularly Australia, amid an expansion of Chinese military activities in the region and concern that budget pressures may reduce America's presence.

He is trying to ease constitutional restraints so Japan's military can use force not only in Japan's own defense but also to defend foreign troops.

Onodera has said Australia has a strong interest in Japan's submarine technology. Johnston is expected to tour a Japanese Soryu-class submarine at Yokosuka naval port, south of Tokyo, during his visit.

The 2,950-ton diesel-electric submarine is the most advanced model in Japan's fleet of 16 submarines. It comes with air-independent propulsion technology acquired from Sweden, and is armed with torpedoes and Harpoon missiles.

"We would like the Australian side to closely look at Japanese defense equipment so we can build an even more cooperative relationship between Japan and Australia," Onodera told reporters last Friday.

Australia is also in talks with Germany and France about a 40 billion Australian dollar ($37 billion) plan to replace its Collins-class submarines.

US preparing to send new aid to Iraq to curb marching insurgency

WASHINGTON — The United States is preparing to send new aid to Iraq to help slow a violent insurgent march that is threatening to take over the nation's north, officials said Wednesday. But the Obama administration offered only tepid support for Iraq's beleaguered prime minister, and U.S. lawmakers openly questioned whether he should remain in power.

With no obvious replacement for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — and no apparent intent on his part to step down — Washington is largely resigned to continue working with his Shiite-led government that has targeted Sunni political opponents and, in turn, has inflamed sectarian tensions across Iraq.

"He's obviously not been a good prime minister," said Sen. Bob Corker, top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "He has not done a good job of reaching out to the Sunni population, which has caused them to be more receptive to al-Qaida efforts."

The panel's chairman, Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat, noted only lukewarm support for al-Maliki, both in Iraq and among U.S. officials. "I don't know whether or not he will actually be the prime minister again," Menendez said. "I guess by many accounts, he may very well ultimately put (together) the coalition necessary to do that."

Insurgents with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which is inspired by al-Qaida, overran the northern Iraqi town of Tikrit on Wednesday, a day after seizing Mosul, the nation's second-largest city. The insurgent network has controlled the western city of Fallujah since the start of this year, and is fighting to take over Beiji, a key northern oil refinery town.

The rampage has raised new doubts about al-Maliki's ability to protect Iraq in areas that were mostly calm when U.S. troops withdrew from the country less than three years ago. Since then, violence has roared back to Iraq, returning to levels comparable to the darkest days of sectarian fighting nearly a decade ago when the country teetered on the brink of civil war.

Al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders have pleaded with the Obama administration for more than a year for additional help to combat the growing insurgency, which has been fueled by the unrelenting civil war in neighboring Syria. Northern Iraq has become a way station for insurgents who routinely travel between the two countries and are seeding the Syrian war's violence in Baghdad and beyond.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said it's expected that the U.S. will give Iraq new assistance to combat insurgents but declined to describe it. Beyond the missiles, tanks, fighter jets and ammunition that the U.S. has already either given or plans to send to Iraq, Baghdad has sought American surveillance drones to root out insurgents.

"The situation is certainly very grave on the ground," Psaki said Wednesday. She said the U.S. is encouraged by Baghdad's recent promise for a national unity effort but "there's more that Prime Minister Maliki can do."

"We agree that all Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Maliki, can do more to address unresolved issues there, to better meet the needs of the Iraqi people," Psaki said.

In a statement issued Wednesday night, the White House said the U.S. will work with Congress to provide "flexibility and resources" to help Iraq respond to the insurgency and will increase as required assistance to the government to help build Iraq's capacity to "effectively and sustainably" stop the insurgency's efforts.

A senior U.S. official said the U.S. is considering whether to conduct drone missions for Iraq but that no decision had been made. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and requested anonymity.

U.S. support for al-Maliki has waxed and waned since 2010, when he hung onto power though backroom deal-making after his State of Law party fell short of winning national elections. In 2011, days after the U.S. troop withdrawal, al-Maliki's government began a campaign of persecuting his longtime Sunni political opponents which, in turn, fueled Sunni anger in the Shiite-majority country.

Al-Maliki's party won the most seats in the most recent elections held in April, but it failed to capture a clear majority. That has spawned a rash of political bargaining in Baghdad as officials build a new power-sharing government.

If he remains in power, it's far from certain that al-Maliki will reverse his heavy-handed tactics after eight years in control, and Washington would most likely be happy with a change in leadership. However, a senior Iraqi official said al-Maliki has no intention of stepping down, despite demands from Sunni and Shiite rivals to give up his post.

Al-Maliki's opponents have for years been unable or unwilling to work together to unseat the prime minister and, in the meantime, there are few people in Iraq's current government who could replace him.

Hundreds line procession route to pay respects to fallen Army captain

ORWIGSBURG, Pa. — The body of a Pennsylvania soldier killed in Afghanistan was escorted through his hometown Wednesday as hundreds of people lined the route, paying their respects to the former standout athlete and West Point graduate who belonged to an Army Special Forces unit.

Capt. Jason Jones, 29, of Orwigsburg, was killed by small-arms fire June 2 in Jalalabad.

Led by a contingent of motorcycles, a hearse carrying Jones' body rolled through Orwigsburg on an overcast, drizzly day. It rolled to a stop underneath a gigantic American flag strung between the crossed ladders of two fire trucks, and the crowd fell silent as an honor guard saluted. Then the procession continued on, winding up at a Pottsville funeral home.

His father, Jay Jones, thanked residents for turning out.

"I cannot describe in words how appreciative we are of all this," he said. "The support for us has been unbelievable, and has really helped us get through this extraordinarily difficult time."

Jason Jones was a star high school soccer player and a co-captain of his basketball team. He graduated from the United States Military Academy with a nuclear engineering degree in 2007. His family said he graduated from U.S. Army Ranger School and U.S. Army Airborne School in 2008 and was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division.

He served in Iraq in 2008-09, earning a Bronze Star.

Jones, who had been married less than a year, qualified as a Green Beret last year and was assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

"I think there's two things that I'd like people to remember. First, is how humble he was. He received awards from West Point and during his military career that we never knew about. And that's the way he was. He was so modest," Jay Jones said.

Jones also said his son "loved his school, he loved his sports, he loved his military. He had so many happy days. And he was happy doing what he was doing."

A memorial service was held Saturday in Pottsville. Jones will be buried at West Point in New York on Tuesday.