Iraq asks US for air strikes on ISIL rebels

Iraq's foreign minister has asked the US to begin air attacks on Sunni rebels to put down a week-long rebellion by fighters led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Hoshyar Zebari made the request during a news conference on Wednesday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as Iraqi security forces battled rebels at Iraq's main
oil refinery and claimed to regain partial control of a city near the Syrian border.

General Martin Dempsey, the top US military commander, confirmed the request during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing.

"We have a request from the Iraqi government for air power," said Dempsey. Earlier, Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, said the government had "started our counter-offensive, regaining the initiative and striking back".

Maliki's relatively upbeat assessment came as the military claimed its forces regained parts of the strategic city of Tal Afar near the Syrian border, which ISIL fighters captured on Monday.

Its closeness to the Syrian border strengthens the armed group's plan to carve out an "Islamic
emirate" stretching across the Iraq-Syria border.

Also on Wednesday, Iraqi government forces repelled an attack by rebels on the country's largest oil refinery at Beiji, some 250km north of Baghdad, said Qassim al-Moussawi, the chief military spokesman.

Moussawi said 40 attackers were killed in fighting there overnight and on Wednesday morning.

There was no independent confirmation of his claims, nor
those on the Iraqi military retaking neighbourhoods in Tal Afar.

In Salaheddin province, the rebels seized three villages, Albu Hassan, Birwajli and Bastamli, in
northern Iraq on Wednesday during clashes with Iraq's security forces and residents.

The fighting left at least 20 civilians dead, Shallal Abdul Baban, a local official, said on Wednesday.

Later on Wednesday, the United Arab Emitates recalled its envoy from Iraq and slammed "sectarian" policies. Saudi Arabia warned Iraq was heading for civil war.