Furthermore, the remaining ISF are rallying, closer to their supply lines in and around Baghdad (logistics has long been a weak point) while units continue to hold off ISIL attacks as far away as Haditha, where the local police commander said he would "sooner die" than surrender the nearby dam.
The government is now on the counter offensive, for the most part morale is high and the insurgents are already showing signs of division. This was most evident from recent infighting near Kirkuk, another manifestation of nationalist--salafist tension.
If the insurgent commanders now threatening a march on Baghdad are expecting a repeat of Mosul, they are in for a shock. Millions are rallying to defend the capital and the world is watching events closely, perhaps waking up to a crisis that has been mounting for several years.
But if the world wants to stabilise the lynchpin of the region, a country that has the world's 5th largest proven oil reserves, it will have to do more, and fast. Currently, the hugely important air base at Balad is under attack and defending it could prove Iraq’s most vital battle yet.
Even still, insurgents are vastly outnumbered as they approach Shi’a majority areas, where heavily armed fighters await an existential battle, in some places aided by fearful Sunnis, some of whom have long term feuds with ISIL. Crucially, many Sunni insurgents will only lay down their arms in the event of a grand political bargain, something that seems almost an abstract concept at the current time.
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