Jihadist militant group Isis has said it is establishing a caliphate, or Islamic state, on the territories it controls in Iraq and Syria.

It also proclaimed the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as caliph and „leader for Muslims everywhere”.

Setting up a state governed under strict Islamic law has long been a goal of many jihadists.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s army continued an offensive to retake the northern city of Tikrit from the Isis-led rebels.

The city was seized by the insurgents on 11 June as they swept across large parts of north-western Iraq.

In a separate development, Israel called for the creation of an independent Kurdish state in response to the gain made by the Sunni rebels in Iraq.

Allegiance demand

The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) announced the establishment of the caliphate in an audio recording posted on the internet on Sunday.

Isis also said that from now on it would be known simply as „the Islamic State”.

The BBC’s Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, says the declaration harks back to the rise of Islam, when the Prophet Muhammad’s followers conquered vast territories in the Middle Ages.

The Sunni-Shia split has its origins in a dispute over the succession to Muhammad.

Source: bbc.com