Gains by the jihadis are tearing the country apart The ease with which a gang of heavily armed, black-shirted hoodlums, waving the banners of jihad, has overrun Mosul , Iraq’s second city, should send a chill down the spine of the world. The strategic nightmare of a new Afghanistan in the heart of the Middle East just got a lot closer. Mosul, a city of 2m people, has fallen without a fight to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a cross-border jihadi movement that split from al-Qaeda, judging it too moderate. The event raises the question of whether Iraq can remain a unified nation state for much longer. More On this story On this topic Editorial This latest chapter in Iraq’s tragic regress began last year when a purge of Sunni leaders by the Shia government of Nouri al-Maliki opened the gates to a return of jihadi […]