Militants, Iraq's army battle for Iraq's largest oil refinery



 Written : Mohamed Abdel fattah

Jun 18, 2014

 Iraq's army claimed Wednesday it had repelled an attack on the nation's largest oil refinery and killed 40 militants

"The militants have managed to break in to the refinery. Now they are in control of the production units, administration building and four watch towers. This is 75 percent of the refinery," an official speaking from inside the refinery in Beiji told Reuters on Wednesday.

The official said fighters of the al Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) began their attack on the Beiji refinery, some 155 miles north of Baghdad late Tuesday night.

The attack continued into Wednesday morning, with fighters targeting it with mortar shells. A small fire started on the facility's periphery, he said.

Reuters reported officials saying that at one point the militants occupied 75 per cent of the refinery, including the administration building and four watchtowers, before they were forced out on Wednesday morning.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, however, assured the nation that his government has regained the initiative after the "shock" defeat of army and security forces in the country's north.

"We were able to contain the strike and arrest deterioration. We have now started our counteroffensive, regaining the initiative and striking back," al-Maliki said.

The Indian government also said Wednesday that 40 Indian construction workers have been kidnapped near Iraq's second-largest city, Mosul, which ISIS and allied Sunni fighters captured last week. Roughly 10,000 Indian citizens work and live in Iraq, with only about 100 in violent, insecure areas like Mosul, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said its diplomats were investigating claims that militants abducted 60 foreign construction workers, including some 15 Turks, near the oil city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

The Sunni militants of the Islamic State have vowed to march to Baghdad and the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf in the worst threat to Iraq's stability since U.S. troops left. The three cities are home to some of the most revered Shiite shrines. The Islamic State also has tried to capture Samarra north of Baghdad, home to another major Shiite shrine.

President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that Iran would do whatever it takes to protect revered Shiite Muslim holy sites in Iraq against Sunni militants .

The Iranian Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for Iraqis to volunteer to resist the onslaught spearheaded by the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL.

At least 5,000 Iranians have pledged online to defend Iraq's Shiite shrines against the Sunni extremists, a conservative news website in Iran reported Tuesday.

The U.S. and Iran also held an initial discussion on how the longtime foes might cooperate to ease the threat from the al-Qaida-linked militants that have swept through Iraq.

Obama met with his national security team Monday evening to discuss options for stopping the militants .he notified Congress that up to 275 troops would be sent to Iraq to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the American Embassy in Baghdad.

Separately, three U.S. officials said the White House was considering sending a contingent of special forces soldiers to Iraq. Their limited mission ,which has not yet been approved would focus on training and advising beleaguered Iraqi troops.

Sources

.usatoday.

foxnews.

.washingtonpost.

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