Iraq on Sunday sought to beat back insurgent advances with air strikes --- air force helicopters targeted ISIL locations in Mosul and north of Baghdad.

The government says the counter-attacks were slowing the Sunni Group, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), advance on Baghdad.

In Dyala province, government helicopters and an attempt by ISIL fighters to calm locals.

He tells the crowd "We will take care of you, don't be concerned. They are infidels who fire aimlessly, they say it's a Sunni area, so they don't care who dies," according to this which was posted to a social media website whose content Reuters cannot independently verify.

ISIL fighters say the government bombed this water plant in Fallujah as well as this school.

They also claim that they've taken Iraqi army vehicles and equipment across the border into Syria.