Bloomberg: President Barack Obama is deploying military advisers and reconnaissance planes to help repel a Sunni insurgency in Iraq for at least several weeks and give the country’s Shiite leaders time to form a new government that can command support across sectarian lines. Maliki, an Iran-allied Shiite who took power in 2006, has resisted years of U.S. urging to make the central government more inclusive.

UPI: Iraqi political leaders are actively seeking a replacement for Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Malik. The political maneuvering comes as Iraqi leaders grow increasingly concerned by Sunni insurgencies in northern Iraq, and what they regard as American approval of removing Maliki in favor of a thus far unidentified candidate acceptable to Iraq’s Sunni and Kurdish minorities and its Shiite majority.

AP: The restrained American military aid now being offered to defend Baghdad against a ferocious Sunni insurgency reaffirms the Obama administration’s mantra that Iraq is still largely on its own. Al-Maliki’s Shiite allies in neighboring Iran have signaled they are willing to fill Iraq’s security void – a move that all but certainly would enforce crackdowns on Sunnis and further push the country into civil war.

The Independent: Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has refused calls for his resignation as government forces continue to battle Sunni militants attempting to take control of the biggest oil refinery in the crisis-hit country. Mr Maliki’s spokesman, Zuhair al-Nahar, said the west should support the Shia-led government’s military operation against al-Qa’ida splinter group Isis instead of calling for a change in government.

Bloomberg: Obama administration officials publicly urged Iraq’s leaders yesterday to make their Shiite-dominated government more inclusive as part of a broader strategy to roll back gains by the Sunni militants. The calls were made as Maliki warned that the violence could spill into neighboring countries and as militants attempted to seize a major oil refinery.