Iraq’s largest refinery not at ISIL risk: US
WASHINGTON - Agence France-Presse
Iraqi pro-government forces, including the Shiite Muslim Al-Abbas popular mobilisation unit, fire a rocket as a part of an operation to retake the Baiji oil refinery from Islamic State (IS) group jihadists, on April 16, 2015. AFP Photo
Iraq’s largest refinery in Baiji is not “at risk” despite an offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group that has breached parts of the facility, the U.S. military’s top general said on April 16.The ISIL militants have “penetrated the outer perimeter” of the vast oil refinery and the U.S.-coalition was concentrating bombing raids and surveillance flights over the area, General Martin Dempsey told reporters.
“The refinery itself is at no risk right now, but ... we’re focusing a lot of our ISR [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance]and air support there,” the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said. The U.S. and coalition aircraft had carried out eight air strikes near Baiji on April 15 and 16.
