Militants pressing a major offensive in Iraq attacked the country’s biggest oil refinery yesterday, as the Iraqi prime minister scrambled to regain the initiative by sacking security commanders and reaching out to political rivals.
The US, which is mulling air strikes against the insurgents, said it believed Baghdad’s security forces were rallying against the assault, while Iran pledged not to let Shiite shrines in Iraq fall to the Sunni Arab militants leading the charge.
Washington has nevertheless deployed about 275 military personnel to protect its embassy in Baghdad, the first time it has publicly bolstered the mission’s security, while other countries have also sought to evacuate nationals and pull diplomats out.
Photo: Reuters
The crisis, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, threatens to carve up the country while the assault on the Baiji oil refinery early yesterday will likely further spook international oil markets.
From about 4am clashes erupted at the Baiji refinery complex in Salaheddin Province, north of Baghdad, according to a senior official and a refinery employee.
They said some tanks containing refined products caught fire and that the Iraqi security forces had suffered casualties.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s security spokesman, Lieutenant General Qassem Atta, later said that Iraqi forces had repelled the attack in fighting which left 40 militants dead. He did not mention security force casualties.
The refinery was shut down and most employees evacuated on Tuesday due to a drop in demand caused by the militant drive, which is being spearheaded by jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Further north, Iraqi security forces pushed into new areas of Tal Afar town yesterday during heavy fighting with militants, a provincial councilor said.
The Shiite-majority town is located in Iraq’s Nineveh Province along a strategic corridor to Syria.
However, militants gained ground elsewhere, with a senior police officer saying they had moved into the Shiite Turkmen area of Bashir in the northern province of Kirkuk yesterday.
In a bid to see off the militant offensive, Maliki sacked several top security commanders on Tuesday evening, and then stood alongside several of his main rivals in a rare display of unity among the country’s fractious political leaders.
Maliki also ordered that one officer face court martial for desertion.
The dismissals came after soldiers and police fled en masse as insurgents on Tuesday last week swept into Nineveh’s capital, Mosul, a city of 2 million.
After taking Mosul, militants captured a major chunk of mainly Sunni Arab territory stretching towards the outskirts of the capital.
Also on Tuesday evening, Maliki appeared on television alongside other senior Sunni and Shiite political leaders.
The group issued a joint statement pledging continuous dialogue and promising to preserve the country’s unity.
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