Iraqi Government forces regained full control on Thursday of the country’s biggest oil refinery after heavy fighting with Sunni militants attempting to seize it, officials said.
Sunni Arab insurgents had stormed the complex in Baiji, south of Iraq’s militant-held second city Mosul, on Wednesday, setting fire to several storage tanks for refined products in a move that sent jitters through world oil markets.“The security forces are in full control of the Baiji refinery,” lieutenant General Qassem Atta, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s security spokesman, said in televised remarks.
A refinery employee told AFP that the militants had withdrawn, as did other witnesses, who said the assailants quit the sprawling complex in the face of a heavy fightback by security forces.Clashes erupted at the refinery early on Wednesday, setting storage tanks for petroleum products alight. The fighting went on until roughly midnight and continued sporadically till Thursday.
The refinery is the biggest in Iraq, accounting for some 50 per cent of the country’s supplies of refined products.But its catchment area has been sharply curtailed by the militants’ seizure of a swathe of northern Iraq, including second city Mosul, which has a population of some two million people.Meanwhile, Australia on Thursday said about 150 of its nationals have been or are currently fighting with radical militants in Iraq and Syria, warning that such people could pose a security risk if they were allowed to return home.
“About 150 Australians have been or are still fighting with Opposition groups in Syria and beyond,” Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.Meanwhile, Five Syria-linked jehadi groups — including the The Islamic State of Iraq and the levant (ISIS) — have been banned in the UK amid reports that many Britons have taken up arms in conflict in Syria. Security minister James Brokenshire set out the motion, which was passed unopposed in the House of Commons.It will now be an offence to be a member of any of the groups in the UK, the BBC reported.Brokenshire said terrorists from or connected to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq posed a threat to Britain’s security.
The list of proscribed organisations includes ISIS, whose fighters are known to have been involved in conflicts in both countries.The four other groups to be banned are: Turkiye Halk Kurtulus Partisi-Cephesi (THKP-C); Kateeba al-Kawthar (KaK); Abdallah Azzam Brigades, including the Ziyad al-Jarrah Battalions (AAB/ZJB); and Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFlP-GC).
Brokenshire said that Syria was the “number one destination” for jihadists anywhere in the world, and added that by banning these groups it sent a “strong message that terrorist activity is not tolerated wherever it happens”.He said: “The reality is that the Syria conflict has seen a proliferation of terrorist groups with multiple aims and ideologies and little regard for international borders. For example in the last week we have seen significantly increased violent activity in Iraq by ISIS.”Downing Street yesterday said that 65 people had been arrested in the past 18 months for Syria-related jihadist activities.
Between 2001 and the end of March 2013, 32 people were charged with proscription offences as a primary offence in the UK, of which 16 were convicted.The motion was welcomed by Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, who said more work needed to be done with internet service providers to ensure content related to the banned organisations was taken down.