Decisive/Total ISIL victory 60,000[6] 6,605+ killed overall Major insurgent attacks Foreign interventions IS genocide of minorities IS war crimes Timeline The fall of Mosul in Iraq occurred between 4 and 10 June 2014, when Islamic State (IS) insurgents, initially led by Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi, captured Mosul from the Iraqi Army, led by Lieutenant General Mahdi Al-Gharrawi.

A former commander of the Iraqi ground forces, Ali Ghaidan, accused former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of being the one who issued the order to withdraw from the city of Mosul.

In early January 2014, IS militants successfully captured the cities of Fallujah and Hīt,[18] bringing much of Al Anbar Governorate under their control.

[21] In early June, following the Iraqi Army's campaign in the Anbar region, insurgents began advancing into the central and northern parts of Iraq.

[22] Just before the operation began, insurgents still controlled most of Fallujah and Garmah, as well as parts of Haditha, Jurf Al Sakhar, Anah, Qa'im, Abu Ghraib, and several smaller settlements in the Anbar Province.

[23] On 4 June, Iraqi police, under the command of Lieutenant General Mahdi Gharawi, cornered IS military leader Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi near Mosul,[24] in Iraq.

[27] On 8 June, the group launched a double bomb attack against a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party office in Jalawla, in which eighteen people died.

[30] According to CBS News, IS fighters armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades stormed the Nineveh provincial headquarters that same day.

[31] By that time, the Fourth Battalion were among the last local police fighting the attackers, the rest of the defense forces having run away or joined the opposition.

Lacking plans and ammunition, Gharawi ordered the Iraqi military to retreat on the advice of retired general Khaled al-Obeidi.

[32] Militants captured the helicopters present at the airport, in addition to "several villages" and a military airbase in south Saladin Governorate.

[31] The Iraqi army "crumbled in the face of the militant assault", which is evidenced by the fact that soldiers abandoned their weapons and dressed as civilians to blend in with the noncombatants.

[1] On 11 June, IS insurgents entered the oil refinery town of Baiji, seizing and setting its main courthouse and police station on fire.

[34][35] Al Jazeera claimed that later that day, militants retreated from Baiji after reinforcements from the Iraqi Army's Fourth Armored Division arrived in the city.

The State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, "This growing threat exemplifies the need for Iraqis from all communities to work together to confront this common enemy and isolate these militant groups from the broader population".

[41] According to Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, "Reconstruction will succeed and Iraq will regain its influence only if the human dimension is given priority; education and culture are the key elements.