A 22-year-old Lebanese is the first to allegedly carry out a suicide attack in Iraq since the Islamic State's declaration, al-Akhbar newspaper reported.

The daily said that the family of Moustafa Abdul Hay, who hails from al-Mankoubin area in the northern city of Tripoli, was informed that he died after carrying out a suicide attack in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Iraqi forces are analyzing an online video that purports to show a brutal jihadist group's leader delivering a sermon in the militant-held city of Mosul, a spokesman said on Sunday.

The video, which if authenticated would be the first time the leader of the Islamic State (IS) has appeared on camera since proclaiming himself the leader of the world's Muslims, was apparently taken during Friday prayers at al-Nour mosque in the northern Iraqi city.

A group of 46 Indian nurses trapped in an area of Iraq seized by Islamic militants were set to fly home after being freed from the rebel-held city of Mosul, Indian officials said Friday.

"Ultimately, it is hope that has triumphed," Syed Akbaruddin, spokesman for the Indian foreign ministry, told reporters.

In the two weeks since it was seized by Sunni militants, some residents of the northern Iraq city of Mosul feel the clock has been turned back hundreds of years.

The militants, led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) jihadist group, have begun imposing an extreme interpretation of Islamic law in the days since they took the city, residents reached by telephone told AFP.

Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said that jihadists of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) would have reached Beirut had his party not sent its fighters to Syria.

“Had we not interfered in Syria at the appropriate moment, ISIL would have been in Beirut now,” he told the leaders of al-Mahdi Scouts Association during a meeting on Sunday.

An al-Qaida splinter group that has seized a huge chunk of northern Iraq commands as many as 10,000 fighters and has steadily been consolidating its hold on much of northeastern Syria across the border.

Its pursuit of an Islamic state that would straddle the two countries has thrown it into bloody conflict with both governments, Kurdish militias and Syrian rebels of all stripes. The group, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, has employed a calculated strategy to achieve its aims, using everything from beheadings to terrify opponents to ice cream socials for children to curry favor with local populations under its control.

Militants stormed the Turkish consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Wednesday and kidnapped 48 people including the head of the mission, a Turkish government official said.

"Forty-eight Turks including the consul, staff members, guards and three children were abducted," the official told Agence France Presse, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Jihadists were firmly in control of Iraq's Mosul on Wednesday, patrolling the streets and calling for employees to return to work a day after seizing the northern city, witnesses said.

Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant overran Mosul and a string of Sunni Arab northern towns on Tuesday, in a major blow to the Iraqi government that the United States warned threatens the entire region.

Jihadists overran Iraq's second city of Mosul, the surrounding Nineveh province, parts of Kirkuk and areas in Salaheddin on Tuesday, in a major blow to a government apparently incapable of stopping militant advances.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki responded by asking parliament to declare a state of emergency and announcing the government would arm citizens to fight the militants.

A suicide bomber detonated an oil tanker rigged with explosives at a police station north of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing five policemen, while attacks elsewhere left two dead, officials said.

Iraq is mired in its worst violence since 2008, with more than 5,500 people killed this year despite several major military operations targeting insurgents and tightened security measures.