DHAKA: Iraqi security officials said that fighters with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant were advancing on the Haditha Dam, the second-largest in Iraq, raising the possibility of catastrophic damage and flooding.

Worries about the dam came as prime minister Nouri al-Maliki criticized his political rivals but did not reject entreaties by Western leaders, including a personal visit by US secretary of state John Kerry, to help defuse the crisis by forming a new government with more equitable power-sharing among competing groups.

The ISIL militants advancing on the dam on the Euphrates river, about 120 miles northwest of Baghdad, were coming from the north, the northeast and the northwest.

The fighters had already reached Burwana, on the eastern side of Haditha, and government forces were fighting to halt their advance, security officials said, reports The Times of India.

Alarmed that the insurgents would reach the dam, army officers told employees to stay inside and to be prepared to open the dam’s floodgates if ordered to do so, one employee said.

‘This will lead to the flooding of the town and villages and will harm you also,’ the employee said he told the army officer.

According to the employee, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, the officer replied, ‘Yes, I know, it will be against us and our enemies’.

BDST: 1440 HRS, JUNE 26, 2014