SYDNEY (AP) — The Obama administration has begun directly providing weapons to Kurdish forces who have started to make gains against Islamic militants in northern Iraq, senior U.S. officials said Monday. 
 
 U.S. and Kurdish flags flutter in the wind as displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community cross the Syria-Iraq border at Feeshkhabour bridge over the Tigris River at Feeshkhabour border point, in northern... (Associated Press) 
 
 Sailors work at sunset on the flight deck of the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush on Sunday, Aug. 10, 2014 in the Persian Gulf. Aircrafts aboard the George H.W. Bush are flying missions... (Associated Press) 
 
 U.S. and Kurdish flags flutter in the wind while displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community cross the Syria-Iraq border at Feeshkhabour bridge over the Tigris River at Feeshkhabour border point, in northern... (Associated Press) 
 
 Previously, the U.S. had insisted on only selling arms to the Iraqi government in Baghdad, but the Kurdish peshmerga fighters had been losing ground to Islamic State militants in recent weeks. 
 
 The officials wouldn't say which U.S. agency is providing the arms or what weapons are being sent, but one official said it isn't the Pentagon. The CIA has historically done similar quiet arming operations. 
 
 The move to directly aid the Kurds underscores the level of U.S. concern about the Islamic State militants' gains in the north, and reflects the persistent administration view that the Iraqis must take the necessary steps to solve their own security problems. 
 
 To bolster that effort, the administration is also very close to approving plans for the Pentagon to arm the Kurds, a senior official said. In recent days, the U.S. military has been helping facilitate weapons deliveries from the Iraqis to the Kurds, providing logistic assistance and transportation to the north. 
 
 The additional assistance comes as Kurdish forces on Sunday took back two towns from the Islamic insurgents, aided in part by U.S. airstrikes in the region. President Barack Obama authorized the airstrikes to protect U.S. interests and personnel in the region, including at facilities in Irbil, as well as Yazidi refugees fleeing militants. 
 
 At the same time, the administration is watching carefully as a political crisis brews in Baghdad. 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged the people of Iraq to remain calm amid the political and military upheaval. 
 
 Speaking in Australia on Monday, Kerry said there should be no use of force by political factions as Iraq struggles form a government. He said the people of Iraq have made clear their desire for change and that the country's new president is acting appropriately despite claims of malfeasance by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. 
 
 Maliki is resisting calls to step down and says he'll file a complaint against the president for not naming him prime minister. 
 
 Kerry noted that Maliki's Shia bloc has put forward three other candidates for the prime minister job and says the U.S. stands with the new president, Fouad Massoum. 
 
 Maliki has accused Massoum of violating the constitution because he has not yet named a prime minister from the country's largest parliamentary faction, missing a Sunday deadline. 
 
 "We believe that the government formation process is critical in terms of sustaining the stability and calm in Iraq," Kerry said. "And our hope is that Mr. Maliki will not stir those waters." 
 
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 AP White House correspondent Julie Pace contributed to this report. ||||| (CNN) -- Iraqi troops, security forces and tanks surged into Baghdad on Sunday as political turmoil deepened over who should lead the country. 
 
 Military tanks were deployed to several neighborhoods in central Baghdad, two Iraqi police officials told CNN. The officials said there are also significantly more troops in Baghdad's Green Zone, the secure area where many government buildings, the military headquarters and the U.S. Embassy are located. 
 
 The stepped-up troop presence comes as Iraqi forces battle Islamist militants in northern Iraq, and just after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki accused Fuad Masum, Iraq's newly elected President, of violating the country's constitution by extending the deadline for Iraq's biggest political coalitions to nominate a candidate for prime minister. 
 
 The precise reason for the growing number of troops in the Iraqi capital was unclear. But CNN military analyst retired Lt. Col. Rick Francona described it as an "ominous" development that signals the Iraqi Prime Minister doesn't want to hand over power. 
 
 "You've got Nuri al-Maliki refusing to step down. Now he's mobilized not just security troops loyal to him, but now he's mobilized army units to put tanks in the streets. Some of the bridges have been closed," Francona said. "It looks like he's trying to lock down the city in some sort of confrontation with the President, so this does not portend well." 
 
 Retired Marine Gen. James Williams said the stepped up security could also be a response to advances by militants from ISIS, the Sunni Muslim extremist group that has now declared itself the Islamic State. 
 
 "It could be a show of force. If you're talking about protecting government buildings, there may be a sense that ISIS forces may be closer than everybody thinks at this point, and so depending on what the undercurrent in Baghdad right now, that could be a great sign for concern," Williams said. "But it may also be a concern that there's a coup afoot." 
 
 CNN's Michael Holmes said al-Maliki could be digging in his heels for a political battle. 
 
 "It's not in his DNA to go without a fight. This is a man who's really feeling besieged at the moment. He's cornered on all sides, if you like," Holmes said. "He's got ISIS on his doorstep, in a military sense. He even had the Grand Ayatollah the other day saying politicians should not cling to their posts. But this is a guy who seizes onto power. He holds it." 
 
 In a televised speech Sunday, al-Maliki said he would file a complaint against Masum for allegedly violating Iraq's constitution. 
 
 Lawmakers elected Masum, a veteran Kurdish politician who's been a member of the Iraqi parliament since 2005, to the presidency last month. 
 
 Choosing a prime minister is a key next step for Iraq's leaders. Critics of al-Maliki have called for him to pull his name out of the running, but he's repeatedly refused. 
 
 Al-Maliki and his Shiite-dominated government have been under enormous international pressure to be more inclusive of the country's minority Sunni population, who say they have been marginalized and cut out of the political process. 
 
 Obama administration officials have talked repeatedly about how their priority is a political settlement that creates a more inclusive government in Iraq. A deadline to agree on a new prime minister had been set for last week and was extended on Sunday. 
 
 In a statement Sunday, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the United States is closely monitoring the situation and supports Iraq's President. 
 
 "The United States fully supports President Fuad Masum in his role as guarantor of the Iraqi constitution," she said. "We reaffirm our support for a process to select a Prime Minister who can represent the aspirations of the Iraqi people by building a national consensus and governing in an inclusive manner. We reject any effort to achieve outcomes through coercion or manipulation of the constitutional or judicial process." 
 
 U.S. officials who put their faith in al-Maliki for years may have misjudged him, Francona said. 
 
 "Most people thought that there would be this peaceful transition to the new government. He served for two terms," Francona said. "Now he's refusing to step down. ... This looks very bad, like he's going to refuse to go." 
 
 Iraq's PM defiantly says he'll stay amid ISIS threat 
 
 CNN's Chelsea J. Carter, Jim Sciutto, Elise Labott and Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.
– Tense times in Baghdad: Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki deployed troops at strategic locations in the Iraqi capital amid a power struggle with newly elected President Fouad Massoum. Maliki accuses Massoum of carrying out "a coup against the constitution and the political process" by failing to nominate him for a third term, despite having the largest bloc in parliament. The New York Times says Massoum will most likely appoint someone from Maliki's bloc, but not Maliki himself. (Update: He did just that.) "The risk is, if he clings to power, he will control the country by force," says an unnamed Iraqi politician of Maliki. "This would be a military coup." More: Maliki is facing many calls to step down, but "it's not in his DNA to go without a fight," a CNN analyst says. "This is a man who's really feeling besieged at the moment. He's cornered on all sides, if you like. He's got ISIS on his doorstep, in a military sense. He even had the Grand Ayatollah the other day saying politicians should not cling to their posts. But this is a guy who seizes onto power. He holds it." John Kerry says the US stands with Massoum and urges the people of Iraq to stay calm amid the political crisis. "We believe that the government formation process is critical in terms of sustaining the stability and calm in Iraq," he said in a statement. "And our hope is that Mr. Maliki will not stir those waters." In the north of the country, meanwhile, some 20,000 of the Yazidis trapped on a mountain by fighting have managed to escape as the effects of American airstrikes on ISIS militants became apparent. Kurdish fighters supported by American drones and fighter jets went on the offensive against the militants and managed to recapture two towns, the New York Times reports. Beyond air power, the US has also started directly supplying Kurdish forces with weapons instead of merely aiding deliveries from the Iraqi government, officials tell the AP. It's not clear which US agency is supplying the weapons.