U.N. official tells Security Council: No immediate Baghdad threat

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The top U.N. official in Iraq told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday there was no immediate danger of violence spreading to Baghdad, but that the northern offensive by Islamist rebels posed a great threat to the country's sovereignty, diplomats said.

Nickolay Mladenov, head of the U.N. political mission in Iraq, briefed the council via video link on this week's sudden northern advance by fighters of the al Qaeda offshoot Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).