Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is warning Australians to get out of Iraq, now that jihadis from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are threatening the capital Baghdad after taking control of much of Sunni Arab territory in the north.  The US announced it is evacuating some of the 5,500 workers at its heavily fortified embassy compound.

Those workers would be temporarily relocated to Amman, Jordan or to Basra in southern Iraq where the ISIS fighters are not currently posing a threat.  The US compound is one of the most-heavily fortified in the world, and is backed up by an aircraft carrier and two guided missile ships that just moved into the Persian Gulf.  President Barack Obama says US troops will not be returning to Iraq.

ISIS is circulating images of captured Iraqi troops, purportedly on their way to execution, suggesting the mass-murder of Iraqi soldiers.  The death toll might be in the hundreds.  The images have yet to be confirmed, but they do fit the militant group’s pattern.

But the insurgent spread has stopped as it reached the edge of territory that is mostly Sunni Muslim.  Samarra, Baghdad, and the south are largely Shi’a, where ISIS is unlikely to get any support from civilians.  That has allowed the battered Iraqi military to reclaim some of its reputation as it claws back some towns and territory around Samarra with the help of militia.

“We have regained the initiative and will not stop at liberating Mosul from ISIS terrorists, but all other parts,” said Iraqi military spokesman Major General Qassim al-Moussawi.