FIGHTING between government troops and fighters from rebel group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) moved closer to the capital Baghdad yesterday.

Clashes in the Al-Kattoun district near Baqouba, the capital of Diyala province, led to the deaths of nearly four dozen Sunni detainees after Islamists tried to storm a jail and free them.

Baqouba is only 40 miles north-east of the Iraqi capital.

There were conflicting versions of the deaths of the detainees.

Police claimed that pro-government Shi’ite militiamen killed the Sunni prisoners after Isis fighters tried to storm the jail and free them.

However, chief military spokesman Lieutenant General Qassim al-Moussawi insisted that the 52 detainees who were held at the station in Al-Kattoun died when the attackers from the Islamic State shelled it with mortars.

But a mortuary official in Baqouba said many of the slain detainees had bullet wounds to the head and chest, rather than shell fragments.

Nine of the attackers were killed, Gen Moussawi said.

Elsewhere, security was being tightened up in the capital as the fighting drew nearer. Nearly 300 armed US troops were being positioned to help secure US assets as President Barack Obama pondered an array of options for combating Isis, including air strikes.

The Islamic State has vowed to march to Baghdad and the Shi’ite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.

The three cities are home to some of the most revered Shi’ite shrines.

Isis has also tried to capture the city of Samarra north of Baghdad, home to another major Shi’ite shrine.

Meanwhile, Kurdistan autonomous region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani claimed that it will be “almost impossible” for Iraq to return to how it was.

He said it would be difficult to find a resolution with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in power and recommended an autonomous region for Sunnis as a potential solution.

Asked if Iraq was falling to pieces, Mr Barzani said: “It can stay together again.

“But if we expect that Iraq will go back like before Mosul, I don’t think so, it’s almost impossible.”