The Baiji area has seen almost uninterrupted fighting since ISIS swept across Iraq last year, but top officers said Thursday that the Baiji refinery, the country's largest, was almost secure.
There were contradictory statements from the armed forces and the allied paramilitary Popular Mobilization (Hashed al-Shaabi) on whether or not the refinery had been fully retaken.
Senior commanders said it had been "completely cleared" but the Joint Operations Command said late Wednesday that the sprawling complex had not yet been extensively swept by Iraqi forces.
- The refinery itself, which once produced 300,000 barrels per day of refined products meeting half of Iraq's needs, is said to have been damaged beyond repair and no longer of huge strategic interest.
- The larger Baiji area, however, is at a crossroads between several key frontlines and officers said anti-ISIS forces were pushing north past the refinery to further cut ISIS supply lines.
"We managed to cut off supply routes and Daesh's ability to communicate between the areas of Tikrit, Sharqat and Anbar," said a senior officer from Salaheddin province, using an Arab acronym for ISIS...
Agence France Presse
dailystar.com.lb
15/10/15
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Iraqi forces push north after advances in Baji...
ReplyDeleteIraqi forces pressed Saturday their biggest offensive in months to resume their long-stalled northward advance and disrupt jihadist lines, security officers said.
After recapturing parts of Baiji and the huge nearby refinery complex from ISIS, security and allied paramilitary forces thrust further northward up the main highway leading to Mosul.
They reached the town of Zawiyah and vowed to push on to Sharqat, the northernmost town in Salaheddin province before the border with Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital.
“Iraqi forces are besieging the villages of Msahaq and Zawiyah,” about 25 kilometers (16 miles) north of Baiji, a senior officer in Salaheddin operations command said.
Reclaiming control of that stretch of road and the villages along it would contribute to isolating ISIS strongholds east of the Tigris, such as Hawijah, from the self-proclaimed caliphate’s heartland on the other side of the river......AFP......alarabiya.net
17/10/15
Irak: les forces de sécurité progressent sur trois fronts face à l'EI ...
ReplyDeleteLes forces de sécurité irakiennes ont avancé dimanche sur trois fronts face aux jihadistes du groupe Etat islamique (EI), débusquant les poches de résistance dans et autour de Baïji et se rapprochant de Ramadi et Hawija, ont indiqué des officiers.
Les forces de sécurité, soutenues par des unités paramilitaires, mènent depuis la semaine dernière une vaste offensive sur Baïji (environ 200 km au nord de Bagdad), l'une des poudrières les plus explosives depuis l'offensive fulgurante de l'EI en juin 2014.
Les forces anti-EI, dont plusieurs milliers de combattants du Hachd al-Chaabi (Unités de mobilisation populaire), forces paramilitaires dominées par des chiites soutenus par l'Iran, ont reconquis la majeure partie de la ville de Baïji et ses environs.
"Ils ratissent encore certains quartiers de Baïji, dont Tamim à l'ouest et le secteur du marché dans le centre", a dit un général de la police. "Quelques membres de l'EI y sont encore présents".
"L'opération a débuté dans deux secteurs"
Un général de l'armée a qualifié de "plus grande victoire depuis le 10 juin 2014" la progression des forces irakiennes dans le secteur de Baïji, faisant référence au début de l'offensive du groupe extrémiste sunnite EI, marquée par la débandade de l'armée et de la police irakiennes. L'EI s'était notamment emparée de la deuxième ville d'Irak, Mossoul (nord)..................http://www.rtbf.be/info/dossier/l-etat-islamique-menace-t-il-le-monde/detail_irak-les-forces-de-securite-progressent-sur-trois-fronts-face-a-l-ei?id=9112088
18/10/15