BAGHDAD — Militants were pushing toward Baghdad Thursday after capturing a town just hours to the north, as the US mulled air strikes in a bid to bolster Iraq’s collapsing security forces. With the militants closing in on the capital, forces from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region took control of disputed northern oil hub of Kirkuk to protect it from attack, officials said. And amid warnings from Washington that the militant offensive threatens the stability of the entire Middle East, Iranian President Hassan Rohani warned that Tehran would combat “terrorism” in Iraq. Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have spearheaded a major offensive overrunning the northern province of Nineveh and significant parts of Kirkuk and Salaheddin provinces, and also moving into Diyala. On Thursday they were advancing on Baghdad, after seizing the town of Dhuluiyah just 90 km away, witnesses and officials said, adding that the nearby Muatassam area has also fallen. And militants traveling in more than 20 vehicles seized three villages in Diyala province, which abuts Baghdad to the east, expanding the offensive, officers said. ISIL spokesman Abu Mohammed Al-Adnani promised the group would drive on to Baghdad and Karbala, a city southwest of the capital, in a statement carried by militants websites. Parliament failed to achieve a quorum for an “emergency session” that was supposed to consider a request from Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and the president’s office to declare a state of emergency. – AFP