The international community has been responding to the security situation in Iraq.

The violence has been escalating this week with an al-Qaeda-inspired group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Levant (ISIL), capturing two key cities in the north.

The United Nations Security Council said the root cause was the failure to rebuild Iraq before US troops left. It issued a statement of support for the Iraqi government.

Russian ambassador to the UN and Security Council President, Vitaly Churkin, said: “The members of the Security Council expressed their unanimous support to the government and people of Iraq in their fight against terrorism. They strongly condemned all terrorist and extremist activities regardless of their motivation.”

In Washington, US President Barack Obama said Iraq would need “additional assistance” from the US to push back the Islamic insurgency.

“Iraq is going to need more help. It is going to need more help from us and it is going to need more help from the international community…I don’t rule out anything, because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria for that matter,” Obama said.

Meanwhile Iranian President Hassan Rouhani condemned the violence, describing the attacks by ISIL in Mosul as “barbaric”.

“As the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we won’t tolerate this violence (in Iraq), this terror, and in turn, as we announced at the United Nations, we will fight violence, extremism and terrorism in the region and around the world,” Rouhani said in a television address.