Al-Maliki seeks to reassure Iraqis

IRBIL, Iraq – Anti-government militants launched an attack Wednesday on Iraq’s largest oil refinery, while Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki assured the nation that resurgent Iraqi forces would triumph against “terrorism.”

Sunni rebels affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, an al-Qaida breakaway group, struck at the huge refinery at Baiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, the capital. Fighting at the huge complex was said to be continuing.

Iraqi officials denied reports that the Baiji facility had fallen and asserted that government forces had repelled the attack. But Reuters, citing an unidentified refinery official inside the plant, reported that militants had gained control of 75 percent of the facility.

In his nationally televised address, al-Maliki asserted that the bleak situation on the battlefield last week had begun to turn around.

“What happened to Iraq was a catastrophe and not every catastrophe is a defeat, for Iraq has regained its national unity,” the prime minister said. “We have started our counteroffensive, regaining the initiative and striking back.”

Critics have accused the president, a Shiite, of governing in a sectarian fashion that has marginalized Iraq’s minority groups, including Sunni Muslims, while favoring the Shiite majority. The rebels fighting the government are Sunni and mostly have advanced through areas largely populated with Sunni Muslims.

Los Angeles Times