Militants 'withdraw from Iraq refinery'

Iraqi pro-government forces on Sunday succeeded in breaking a siege on the strategic Baiji refinery by jihadist militants from the "Islamic State" group, officials and a media outlet said.

"Iraqi forces ... reached the gate of the refinery," the governor of Salaheddin province, Raad al-Juburi, told AFP news agency.

The Al-Hadath television station reported that government troops had entered the compound, 200 km (130 miles) north of Baghdad, where security forces have held out for months against attacks and suicide bombings carried out by IS.

If confirmed, the victory would be another major success for Iraqi forces, who on Friday recaptured the key town of Baiji, just to the south, the largest town to be retaken from the insurgents since they overran large parts of the country in June.

The retaking of Baiji gives government forces more control of a road leading to Iraq's second city, Mosul, which remains in rebel hands, and also further isolates militants in the city of Tikrit, to the south.

Iraqi forces rally

Iraq security forces initially collapsed under the IS-led onslaught in the summer, but have since made progress, aided by US-led airstrikes and support from Shiite militias and Sunni tribesmen.

The Baiji refinery, in the country's north, once handled 300,000 barrels of oil daily - some 50 percent of national demand - but it has been crippled for months by the militants' attacks.

IS controls large swathes of territory in both Iraq and Syria, and has proclaimed a caliphate straddling both countries, imposing a strict form of Islamic sharia law in the areas it holds.

Its campaign has been marked by extreme brutality toward any who resist its advance or refuse to convert to its version of Islam.

tj/sb (Reuters, AFP)