Iraqi PM in crisis talks

PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki makes a surprise visit to Samarra city, north of Baghdad, on Friday.

With large swathes of the north-west now under the control of insurgents he's been holding crisis talks with military commanders.

Samarra was also overrun but later re-taken by Iraqi forces.

Yet it's the Iraqi military Maliki has to worry about.

This amateur video posted on the internet purports to show tanks abandoned by government troops as Sunni insurgents advanced on Kirkuk province.

The video also shows what's said to be the headquarters of the army's 47th brigade.

The building appears to have been ransacked and windows smashed.

The footage can't be independently verified by Reuters.

Iraqi police backed by Kurdish forces were fighting back against the insurgents from a group called the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

A Kurdish military spokesman said on