The US military has started flying armed drones over Baghdad to defend American troops and diplomats as Iraqi forces took their fight against Sunni insurgents to the strategic militant-held city of Tikrit.

Iraq's top Shiite cleric urged the country's leaders to unite, after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki conceded political measures are needed to defeat the offensive that has killed more than 1,000 people and overrun major parts of five provinces.

In further fallout, the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region said there was no going back on his ethnic group's self-rule in disputed territory, including the divided northern oil city Kirkuk, now defended against the militants by Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.

International agencies also raised alarm bells over the humanitarian consequences of the fighting, with up to 10,000 people having fled a northern Christian town in recent days and 1.2 million displaced by unrest in Iraq this year.

A senior US official said "a few" armed drones were being used over Baghdad as a precaution to safeguard Americans in the Iraqi capital if necessary.

But officials said the drones would not be used for offensive strikes against the Sunni Arab militant offensive, led by jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) but involving other groups as well.

The Pentagon acknowledged that among the manned and unmanned aircraft flying over Iraq to carry out surveillance, some were carrying bombs and missiles -- without specifying if those planes were drones.

"The reason that some of those aircraft are armed is primarily for force protection reasons now that we have introduced into the country some military advisers whose objective will be to operate outside the confines of the embassy," spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said.

Maliki insisted that "Baghdad is safe."

A retired US general, James Conway, echoed those remarks, saying that "the worst is over" as militants will be unable to take Baghdad, the south or Kurdish areas.

In Tikrit, Iraqi forces have swooped into Tikrit University by helicopter, and a police major reported periodic clashes there on Friday.

A senior army officer said Iraqi forces were targeting militants in Tikrit with air strikes to protect forces at the university and prepare for an assault on the hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.

- University important step -

Another senior officer said taking the university was an important step towards regaining control of Tikrit, which the militants seized on June 11.

The operation is the latest effort to regain the initiative after security forces wilted in the face of the initial insurgent onslaught launched on June 9.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani said Baghdad could no longer object to Kurdish self-rule in Kirkuk and other towns from which federal forces withdrew in the face of the militant advance.

"Now, this (issue)... is achieved," he said, referring to a constitutional article meant to address the Kurds' decades-old ambition to incorporate the territory in their autonomous region in the north over the objections of successive governments in Baghdad.

"We have been patient for 10 years with the federal government to solve the problems of these (disputed) areas," Barzani said.

"There were Iraqi forces in these areas, and then there was a security vacuum, and Peshmerga forces went to fill this vacuum."

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is revered within the majority Shiite community, meanwhile urged Iraqi leaders to unite and form a government quickly after parliament convenes Tuesday.

- Arming moderate rebels -

Sistani's remarks echoed those of British Foreign Secretary William Hague and US Secretary of State John Kerry, who visited Jeddah as Washington unveiled a $500 million plan to arm and train moderate Syrian Sunni rebels to help fight the ISIL-led militants.

On Thursday, Maliki, who has publicly focused on a military response to the crisis, said political measures were also necessary, ahead of the July 1 opening of the new parliament elected on April 30.

Iraq has also appealed for US air strikes against the militants, but Washington has only offered up to 300 military advisers.

Washington has stopped short of saying Maliki must go, but has left little doubt it feels he has squandered the opportunity to rebuild Iraq since US troops withdrew in 2011.

Mortar fire south of Baghdad on Friday killed at least five people, while shelling and clashes in Diyala province to the northeast killed 10 more, four of them soldiers.

Maliki's security spokesman has said hundreds of soldiers have been killed since the offensive began, while the UN puts the overall death toll at nearly 1,100.

The International Organisation for Migration warned that aid workers could not reach tens of thousands of Iraqis displaced by the violence, and called for humanitarian corridors to be established.

Iraq PM pushes political solution to militant offensive
Baghdad (AFP) June 26, 2014 - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki conceded Thursday that political measures are needed alongside military action to repel a Sunni insurgent offensive that is threatening to tear Iraq apart.

He spoke as British Foreign Secretary William Hague urged Iraqi leaders to unite in the face of the onslaught, led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), that has killed nearly 1,100 people and displaced more than half a million more.

Iraqi forces launched a helicopter-borne assault aimed at opening the way to retaking militant-held Tikrit, while the autonomous Kurdish region further staked its claim to the disputed city of Kirkuk.

Powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr meanwhile risked ratcheting up already-high sectarian tensions by vowing to "shake the ground" under the feet of the advancing militants.

Later on Thursday, a suicide bomb in a predominantly Shiite area of Baghdad killed 19 people.

"We should proceed in two parallel tracks," Maliki told Hague, on a surprise visit to Iraq.

Along with military operations, authorities must continue "following up on the political process and holding a meeting of the parliament (on time) and electing a head of parliament and a president and forming the government."

Thus far, Maliki had publicly focused on a military response to the two-week crisis, and his latest comments were his clearest yet regarding finding a political solution.

- Syrian strikes -

In an interview with the BBC, Maliki said the Syrian air force had carried out strikes against militants on the Syrian side of the Al-Qaim border crossing, controlled by ISIL.

He added that Iraq had purchased several used Sukhoi fighter jets from Belarus and Russia.

Maliki said Baghdad had not requested the Syrian strikes, but he "welcomed" any such move against the ISIL-led militants.

But the United States later said that Syrian military action would not be "in any way helpful to Iraq's security," but that Iran "could play a constructive role" if it promoted an inclusive Iraqi government.

Iraq has appealed for US air strikes against the militants, but Washington has only offered up to 300 military advisers, the first of whom have begun work in Baghdad.

On Thursday, Iraqi forces swooped into Tikrit by helicopter, taking control of a strategically located university after clashes with militants, officials said.

A senior army officer said the assault on Tikrit, which has been held by militants since June 11, would open the way for the city and surrounding areas to be retaken.

Washington has urged Iraq's fractious leaders to unite in the face of the militants, and Hague echoed that message Thursday, saying the "urgent priority must be to form an inclusive government."

"It is vital to demonstrate to the world that Iraq is uniting in the face of this threat," he said after meeting Iraqi leaders. "This is the best way to receive international support."

- 'Shake the ground' -

Washington has stopped short of calling for Maliki to go, but has left little doubt it feels he has squandered the opportunity to rebuild Iraq since American troops withdrew in 2011.

In a televised speech from the Shiite shrine city of Najaf, powerful cleric Sadr vowed to "shake the ground" under the feet of the militants.

He said foreign powers "and especially forces of the occupier and regional states should take their hands off" the country, referring to the United States and Iraq's neighbours.

But in an apparent effort to restrain worsening sectarian tensions, Sadr insisted that the militants did not represent Iraqi Sunnis, whom he said had suffered "marginalisation and exclusion."

Potentially worsening communal ties, a suicide attack in Kadhimiyah, a north Baghdad neighbourhood that is home to the shrine of a revered Shiite figure, killed 19 people.

Iraq's flagging security forces were swept aside by the initial insurgent push, but have since begun regrouping, although they have yet to take back control of major cities lost to the militants.

Loyalists forces pulled out of several ethnically divided areas of Iraq, including northern oil hub Kirkuk. That enabled Iraqi Kurds to take de facto control of areas they have long wanted to incorporate into their autonomous region, over Baghdad's strong objections.

Kurdish regional president Barzani toured Kirkuk Thursday, in his first visit since the takeover, to inspect forces deployed to defend the city against militants to the west and south.

Meanwhile ISIL fighters bolstered their presence Thursday in the Syrian town of Albu Kamal on the border with Iraq, a Syrian monitoring group said.

Maliki's security spokesman has said hundreds of soldiers have been killed since the offensive began, while the UN puts the overall number of people killed at nearly 1,100.