The Iraqi army is fast losing control of the country's major citites, and it didn't take much. ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham, has managed to capture not only Mosul, but also Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein. In the case of Mosul, 30,000 Iraqi soldiers ran away from 800 ISIS fighters. ISIS has taken control of the Iraqi army's major base in the city and stolen up to $480 million in bank notes. Around 300 inmates have reportedly been freed since Tikrit fell when it was attacked by ISIS from the north, west, and south. ISIS became notorious for its fighting in the Syrian civil war, and for being so extreme that al Qaeda disassociated itself from it. Mass beheadings have been reported in both Tikrit and Mosul. Now, the government is scrambling to secure its cities. "This signifies that the army has been built on weak foundations," said Hamad al-Mutlaq, a member of the Iraqi parliament's defence committee. "The Iraqi government is the one to blame and should be held responsible for this failure; it has been unable to build a healthy state and unable to defend it."
