Iraqi forces retake control of Baiji oil refinery from Daesh

Iraqi army units and allied Shia volunteer forces have taken back the country’s largest oil refinery, Baiji, from Daesh Takfiri terrorists as they push ahead with their counter-terror military operations.

In a statement issued on Monday, Iraq’s Joint Military Command said the oil refinery near Baiji as well as the nearby town of Siniya in the country’s northern province of Salahuddin had been fully cleansed of Daesh militants.

The statement did not provide further details about the ongoing military offensive.

The announcement came a day after Sabah al-Numani, spokesman for Iraq’s counter-terror forces, said most parts of the strategic energy complex as well as the Baiji city, located on the main road between the capital Baghdad and the Daesh-held city of Mosul in the northern province of Nineveh, have been liberated.

The latest developments came days after Iraqi armed forces launched a new large-scale military offensive to regain control of Baiji.

On Thursday, Hadi al-Amiri, who heads Iraq’s Badr Organization, praised the progress in the ongoing army offensive against Daesh, saying, “We caught the enemy off guard and we attacked them from all directions.”

In April, Iraqi armed forces wrested back full control of the city of Tikrit in embattled Salahuddin Province after driving Daesh Takfiri extremists out of the area.

In response to the heavy losses the terrorists suffered in Tikrit, they stepped up their terror attacks in Baiji as well as Anbar Province.

Baiji has changed hands several times between Iraqi forces and Daesh militants since the terror group swept through Iraq in June last year after seizing swathes of land in neighboring Syria.

Since then, the Iraqi army, backed by fighters from the Popular Mobilization Units, has been engaged in heavy battles with the terrorists on several fronts in the militant-held areas, inflicting heavy losses on them.