The Iraqi city of Tikrit has been seized by fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, security sources have said, the second city to fall to the group in two days,SIA reports quoting the Al Jazerea.
Sources told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that gunmen had set up checkpoints around Tikrit, which lies between the capital Baghdad and Mosul, Iraq's second largest city which was captured by ISIL on Tuesday.
"All of Tikrit is in the hands of the militants," a police colonel told the AFP news agency. A police brigadier general told AFP that fighters attacked from the north, west and south of the city, and that they were from ISIL.
A police major told the agency that ISIL fighters had freed about 300 inmates from a prison in the city, which is the capital of Salaheddin province.
Iraqi state television reported that special forces soldiers were fighting to regain control of city. Sources claimed the Iraqi soldiers had cleared the city of ISIL, but these reports remain unverified.
Meanwhile, sources said the nearby city of Kirkuk, home to Iraq's biggest oil refinery, was also being attacked by ISIL. Fighters had guaranteed the safety of Iraqi soldiers if they gave up their weapons.
The fighting comes after half a million people are reported to have fled Mosul since the city was taken over by ISIL on Tuesday.
The Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration said the Mosul takeover had "displaced over 500,000 people in and around the city", a quarter of the city's population.
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