BAGHDAD (AP) — Al-Qaida-inspired militants have pushed deeper into Iraq’s Sunni heartland, conquering cities and towns that had largely been calm before the Americans withdrew less than three years ago and spreading fear that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government will be unable to stop the Islamic extremists as they press closer to Baghdad.

Fighters from the militant group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on Wednesday took Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, as soldiers and security forces abandoned their posts and yielded ground once controlled by U.S. forces.