Baghdad: Security forces entered Iraq’s largest refinery for the first time on Tuesday after months of battling Daesh militants who had surrounded it, a police colonel said.
Complete recovery of the Beiji facility could provide critical momentum for government forces charged with restoring stability in a country facing its worst security crisis since dictator Saddam Hussain was toppled in 2003.
“The first Iraqi force, the anti-terrorism force called Mosul Battalion, entered Beiji refinery for the first time in five months,” police colonel Saleh Jaber of the Beiji refinery protection force told Reuters.
State television flashed news of the advance and broadcast
footage it said was of Iraqi security forces entering the refinery’s gate.
“In this area, terrorists were stationed to the left and right. If God is willing, Beiji will be the main key to liberating each span of Iraq,” the commander of provincial security operations, Abdul Wahab Al Sa’adi, told the broadcaster.
US-led air strikes have prevented the Islamist group, which swept through northern Iraq in June almost unopposed by the Iraqi army, from making significant further territorial gains for its self-proclaimed caliphate.
Daesh seized the city of Beiji and surrounded the sprawling refinery during that first advance in June.
Daesh has stolen oil and petroleum products from areas it controls.
Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi sacked 26 military commanders this month for corruption in an apparent bid to show the government is serious about improving the performance of the army to counter Daesh.
The Beiji refinery was producing around 175,000 barrels per day before it was closed, a senior Iraqi official said in June.
Iraq’s domestic daily consumption is estimated at 600,000-700,000 bpd.
