Islamic militants overran parts of Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul today, driving security forces from their posts and seizing the provincial government headquarters, security bases and other key buildings. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pressed parliament to declare a state of emergency. The fight for Mosul was a heavy defeat in Baghdad's battle against a widening insurgency by a breakaway al-Qaida group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has been trying - with some success - to seize territory both in Iraq and neighboring Syria. Scroll down for video . Smoke rises from burning buildings and cars in Mosul, Iraq after Islamists militants seized the city yesterday . Children are among the 150,000 people who have fled the city where gun battles now rage . Earlier this year, the group captured . another Iraqi city, Fallujah, in the west of the country, and . government forces have been unable to take it back after months of . fighting. The far larger Mosul is an even more strategic prize. The city and surrounding Ninevah province are a major export route for Iraqi oil and a gateway to Syria. Regaining Mosul poses a daunting challenge for al-Maliki. The city has a Sunni Muslim majority and many in the community are already deeply embittered against his Shiite-led government. Thousands of the city's residents are now refugees seeking safety in other parts of the country . Burning vehicles belonging to Iraqi security forces seen during clashes with al Qaeda-linked Islamic militants . During the nearly nine-year American presence in the country, Mosul was . a major stronghold for al-Qaida and U.S. and Iraqi forces carried out . repeated offensives there, regaining a semblance of control but never . routing the insurgents entirely. Islamic . militants and Iraqi troops have been fighting for days in Mosul. But . Monday night and into early Tuesday, the government forces in the city . appeared to collapse. Insurgents . overran the Ninevah provincial government building in the city - a key . symbol of state control - in the evening, and security forces fled many . of their posts. The fighters stormed police stations, bases and prisons, capturing weapons and freeing prisoners. On . Tuesday, Mosul residents said the militants appeared to be in control . of several parts of the city, raising the black banners that are the . emblem of the Islamic State. Thousands fled as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pressed parliament to declare a state of emergency . One refugee said: 'The situation is chaotic inside the city and there is nobody to help us' The residents spoke to The Associated Press by telephone on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety. In . a nationally televised press conference Tuesday, al-Maliki asked . parliament to declare a state of emergency, acknowledging that militants . had taken control of 'vital areas in Mosul.' He said the public and . government must unite 'to confront this vicious attack, which will spare . no Iraqi.' State TV said parliament would convene on Thursday. Under the constitution, parliament can declare a 30-day state of . emergency on a two-thirds vote by its members, granting the prime . minister the necessary powers to run the country. Legal experts said . that could include powers to impose curfews, restrict public movements . and censor the media. 'What . happened is a disaster by any standard,' parliament speaker Osama . al-Nujaifi - a Sunni from Mosul - said in a televised address. 'The presence of these terrorist groups in this vast province ... threatens not just the security and the unity of Iraq, but the whole . Middle East,' he said. He . said militants had seized helicopters at Mosul airport and captured . weapons depots, and captured several villages and a military airbase . further south in Salahuddin province, he said. Residents began fleeing Mosul - though the size of the flight was not yet clear. A . government employee who lives about a mile from the provincial . government building, Umm Karam, said she left with her family Tuesday . morning. Two Iraqi army officers said security forces had received orders to leave the city after militants captured the Ghizlani army base in southern Mosul and set more than 200 prisoners free from a high security jail . The retreating army and police forces set fire to fuel and ammunition depots in order to prevent the militants from using them, the Iraqi officers said . 'The situation is . chaotic inside the city and there is nobody to help us,' she said, . speaking on condition she be identified by a nickname for fear of her . safety. 'We are afraid ... There is no police or army in Mosul.' The . assault in Mosul is also a sign of Iraq's reversals since American . forces left the country in late 2011. Militants ramped their insurgency . back up over the past two years. The Islamic State has presented itself as the Sunni community's . champion against al-Maliki's Shiite-led government as the group fights . on both sides of the border in what Iraqi officials have said is an . attempt to carve out an enclave for itself in western Iraq and eastern . Syria. The group, which . was once al-Qaida's branch in Iraq, was thrown out of the terrorist . network after it expanded its operations in Syria against the orders of . al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri. It is considered one of the most . ruthless rebel forces fighting to topple President Bashar Assad in . Syria, where it has in seized a major city in the east and other . territory. In Iraq, the . group rose up earlier this year to take over Fallujah and parts of the . nearby city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. It has also been . carrying out a campaign of bombings and other violence in Baghdad and . other parts of the country. In . the Mosul fighting, insurgents armed with machineguns and . rocket-propelled grenade launchers stormed the provincial headquarters . building late Monday, overpowering guards in a short firefight, . according to Ali Mahmoud, the media official for Ninevah province. He . confirmed accounts by Mosul residents that many of the police and army . forces that had been stationed in the city had disappeared by Tuesday. Provincial . governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, the parliament speaker's brother, was in a . nearby guest house. He managed to escape the area and left the city, . though he continues to monitor the situation, Mahmoud said. On Monday, the governor had urged residents to fend off the attackers. 'I . call upon the men of Mosul to stand firm in their areas and to defend . them against the strangers and to form public committees in their . districts to help their people and to protect their areas,' he said in a . transcript of a speech posted online.
Captured by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - an offshoot of al Qaeda .
Followed four days of fierce fighting in Mosul and other cities and towns .
Fall of Mosul deals serious blow to Baghdad's efforts to fight Sunni militants .
Iraq's prime minister has asked parliament to declare a state of emergency .
Islamic militants overran parts of Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul today, driving security forces from their posts and seizing the provincial government headquarters, security bases and other key buildings. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pressed parliament to declare a state of emergency. The fight for Mosul was a heavy defeat in Baghdad's battle against a widening insurgency by a breakaway al-Qaida group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has been trying - with some success - to seize territory both in Iraq and neighboring Syria. Scroll down for video . Smoke rises from burning buildings and cars in Mosul, Iraq after Islamists militants seized the city yesterday . Children are among the 150,000 people who have fled the city where gun battles now rage . Earlier this year, the group captured . another Iraqi city, Fallujah, in the west of the country, and . government forces have been unable to take it back after months of . fighting. The far larger Mosul is an even more strategic prize. The city and surrounding Ninevah province are a major export route for Iraqi oil and a gateway to Syria. Regaining Mosul poses a daunting challenge for al-Maliki. The city has a Sunni Muslim majority and many in the community are already deeply embittered against his Shiite-led government. Thousands of the city's residents are now refugees seeking safety in other parts of the country . Burning vehicles belonging to Iraqi security forces seen during clashes with al Qaeda-linked Islamic militants . During the nearly nine-year American presence in the country, Mosul was . a major stronghold for al-Qaida and U.S. and Iraqi forces carried out . repeated offensives there, regaining a semblance of control but never . routing the insurgents entirely. Islamic . militants and Iraqi troops have been fighting for days in Mosul. But . Monday night and into early Tuesday, the government forces in the city . appeared to collapse. Insurgents . overran the Ninevah provincial government building in the city - a key . symbol of state control - in the evening, and security forces fled many . of their posts. The fighters stormed police stations, bases and prisons, capturing weapons and freeing prisoners. On . Tuesday, Mosul residents said the militants appeared to be in control . of several parts of the city, raising the black banners that are the . emblem of the Islamic State. Thousands fled as Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pressed parliament to declare a state of emergency . One refugee said: 'The situation is chaotic inside the city and there is nobody to help us' The residents spoke to The Associated Press by telephone on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety. In . a nationally televised press conference Tuesday, al-Maliki asked . parliament to declare a state of emergency, acknowledging that militants . had taken control of 'vital areas in Mosul.' He said the public and . government must unite 'to confront this vicious attack, which will spare . no Iraqi.' State TV said parliament would convene on Thursday. Under the constitution, parliament can declare a 30-day state of . emergency on a two-thirds vote by its members, granting the prime . minister the necessary powers to run the country. Legal experts said . that could include powers to impose curfews, restrict public movements . and censor the media. 'What . happened is a disaster by any standard,' parliament speaker Osama . al-Nujaifi - a Sunni from Mosul - said in a televised address. 'The presence of these terrorist groups in this vast province ... threatens not just the security and the unity of Iraq, but the whole . Middle East,' he said. He . said militants had seized helicopters at Mosul airport and captured . weapons depots, and captured several villages and a military airbase . further south in Salahuddin province, he said. Residents began fleeing Mosul - though the size of the flight was not yet clear. A . government employee who lives about a mile from the provincial . government building, Umm Karam, said she left with her family Tuesday . morning. Two Iraqi army officers said security forces had received orders to leave the city after militants captured the Ghizlani army base in southern Mosul and set more than 200 prisoners free from a high security jail . The retreating army and police forces set fire to fuel and ammunition depots in order to prevent the militants from using them, the Iraqi officers said . 'The situation is . chaotic inside the city and there is nobody to help us,' she said, . speaking on condition she be identified by a nickname for fear of her . safety. 'We are afraid ... There is no police or army in Mosul.' The . assault in Mosul is also a sign of Iraq's reversals since American . forces left the country in late 2011. Militants ramped their insurgency . back up over the past two years. The Islamic State has presented itself as the Sunni community's . champion against al-Maliki's Shiite-led government as the group fights . on both sides of the border in what Iraqi officials have said is an . attempt to carve out an enclave for itself in western Iraq and eastern . Syria. The group, which . was once al-Qaida's branch in Iraq, was thrown out of the terrorist . network after it expanded its operations in Syria against the orders of . al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri. It is considered one of the most . ruthless rebel forces fighting to topple President Bashar Assad in . Syria, where it has in seized a major city in the east and other . territory. In Iraq, the . group rose up earlier this year to take over Fallujah and parts of the . nearby city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. It has also been . carrying out a campaign of bombings and other violence in Baghdad and . other parts of the country. In . the Mosul fighting, insurgents armed with machineguns and . rocket-propelled grenade launchers stormed the provincial headquarters . building late Monday, overpowering guards in a short firefight, . according to Ali Mahmoud, the media official for Ninevah province. He . confirmed accounts by Mosul residents that many of the police and army . forces that had been stationed in the city had disappeared by Tuesday. Provincial . governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, the parliament speaker's brother, was in a . nearby guest house. He managed to escape the area and left the city, . though he continues to monitor the situation, Mahmoud said. On Monday, the governor had urged residents to fend off the attackers. 'I . call upon the men of Mosul to stand firm in their areas and to defend . them against the strangers and to form public committees in their . districts to help their people and to protect their areas,' he said in a . transcript of a speech posted online.
Islamic militants overran parts of Iraq's group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, have been fighting for days in Mosul. But . to declare a state of emergency . One refugee Tuesday, al-Maliki asked . parliament to declare members, granting the prime . minister the and other violence in Baghdad and . other parts