Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stressed that the Iraqi army has retaken the initiative and advancing toward the ISIL strongholds.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stressed that the Iraqi army has retaken the initiative and advancing toward the ISIL strongholds.

In a speech addressing volunteer fighters on Sunday at a military camp in Mahmoudiya, 30 kilometers south of Baghdad, the Iraqi PM warned terrorists of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Levant that they have nowhere to hide.

“We have retaken the initiative and here we are advancing to defeat them with you and with your brothers in the armed forces and with all those who stood by the will of the Iraqi people.”

“We started to march toward them. There will be no place for them to hide. Our slogan and your slogan should be they have no place to hide,” Maliki added.

According to local officials, some 8000 tribal fighters have joined the fight against the Takfiri militants in Nineveh.

Meanwhile, an Iraqi government spokesman said that nearly 300 terrorists have been killed in clashes with Iraqi forces over the past 24 hours.

Militants have taken control of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers northwest of the capital. They have vowed to continue their raid toward Baghdad, but their advance has been slowed down as Iraqi military forces and volunteer fighters have begun engaging them on several fronts, in some cases even pushing the militants out of the areas they had earlier overrun.