Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave a rare midnight television address, announcing that he was not going to cave in under pressure and step down.  Within hours, Special Forces made up of Shiites loyal to al-Maliki were deployed onto the streets of Baghdad.

“I will submit today an official complaint to the federal court against the president of the Republic for committing a clear constitutional violation for the sake of political calculations,” said Maliki, who accuses Iraq’s Kurdish President Fouad Masoum of violating the constitution by missing a deadline for him to ask the biggest political bloc to nominate a prime minister and form a government.

The US immediately backed President Masoum against al-Maliki, with whom Washington has lost patience, and accused the Prime Minister of stoking Iraq’s crisis.  US President Barack Obama is urging Iraqi leaders to form a unity government to counter the threat poised by the Sunni militants of Islamic State, which control vast swaths of northern Iraq.

Islamic State is accused of widespread atrocities in the territory it holds, including beheadings and forced amputations, burying people alive, and taking women from the minority Yazidi sect as slaves.  US President Barack Obama ordered a series of air strikes against Islamic State, which allowed Kurdish Peshmerga forces to retake two towns from the terrorists.