ISIS Seizes 'Low Grade' Nuclear Material

The United Nations atomic agency has asked Iraq for more details about 40kg (88lbs) of poisonous nuclear material taken by Islamic militants.

Iraq informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the seizure from a scientific research facility at a university in Mosul.

It appealed for the agency to help "stave off the threat of their use by terrorists in Iraq or abroad".

The city is part of a large swathe of territory both in Iraq and Syria that is now under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which now refers to itself as the Islamic State.

Militants from IS drove triumphantly into Mosul last month

IAEA spokeswoman Gill Tudor confirmed the request and said the non-enriched material that had fallen into the hands of insurgents was "low grade" and did not pose a significant security risk.

"On the basis of the initial information we believe the material involved is low grade and would not present a significant safety, security or nuclear proliferation risk," Ms Tudor said.

IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi wants a caliphate to include Mosul

"Nevertheless, any loss of regulatory control over nuclear and other radioactive materials is a cause for concern."

Former IAEA chief inspector Olli Heinonen said that if the material came from a university it could be laboratory chemicals or radiation shielding, consisting of natural or depleted uranium.

"You cannot make a nuclear explosive from this amount, but all uranium compounds are poisonous," Mr Heinonen said.

UN inspectors failed to find nuclear weapons in Iraq pre-2003

Because radioactive material is less hard to find and the device easier to make, experts say a 'dirty bomb' - which could cause panic and have serious economic and environmental consequences - is a more likely threat than an actual atom bomb.

Dirty bombs are improvised explosive devices in which radioactivity is dissipated to contaminate an area or population.

Meanwhile, authorities in Baghdad have halted cargo flights to the Kurdish cities of Erbil and Sulaimaniya, amid an escalating row between the Shia-led central government and Kurdish leaders.

Kurdish leaders accused Prime Minister Maliki of being "hysterical"

The decision comes as Iraq's Kurdish regional president said Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki was "hysterical" and not fit to run the country.

The worsening political discord comes three days ahead of a planned parliamentary session meant to revive the process of replacing what has effectively been a caretaker government since April elections.

Iraqi forces fled Mosul which allowed militants easy access

Since ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed a caliphate -  twice the size of Israel -  militants have not made any further significant advances, however they are suspected of murdering more than 50 handcuffed men on the periphery of Baghdad on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile a Russian-made Sukhoi jet of the kind recently delivered by Moscow attacked a market in the rebel-held city of Fallujah, which lies only 35 miles west of the capital.

A local doctor said 35 people were wounded and eight killed in Wednesday's attack, and another 12 were injured, including five children, during airstrikes on Thursday.

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