IS makes gains on major refinery

IRBIL, Iraq – Islamic State fighters have taken control of half of Iraq’s largest oil refinery and have cut supply lines to the 150 or so government troops who are holding out inside, witnesses reported Saturday.

The surprise Islamic State advance came despite U.S.-led aerial bombardment of Islamic State positions in the central Iraqi city of Baiji, which includes the refinery, and is a reminder of the precarious security situation in central Iraq where government troops are stretched thin battling Islamic State forces.

Speaking from inside the facility, an Iraqi officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to a reporter said government troops were running low on food, water and ammunition. He said the situation was chaotic after 11 months of nearly unbroken siege.

He said Islamic State fighters control “all the major buildings,” 80 percent of the watchtowers around the facility, and had flanked government positions with “snipers and suicide bombers driving heavily armored car bombs.”

“We have been under siege for four days without any major coalition airstrike assistance inside the facility,” he said.

The Baiji refinery remains one of the more important economic assets in Iraq, even though it has been shut down since last summer, when Islamic State fighters first began trying to capture it. Before June, it produced about half Iraq’s production of refined products, such as gasoline. In addition to lost revenue, the government’s inability to operate it has forced it to import hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of gasoline.

The Iraqi Defense ministry would not comment on the situation at the refinery, but a member of the governing council for Salahuddin province, which includes Baiji, admitted that Islamic State forces had breached the perimeter but denied that much of the facility was under their control.

Council member Adnan Ibrahim said the key production control sections of the plant remained in government hands. “The security forces control more than 60 percent of the refinery,” he said.

On Friday, the United States Central Command said airstrikes had destroyed what it called two Islamic State fighting positions in the previous 24 hours near Baiji.