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| Iraq |
| Iraqi forces gain more significant ground in Baiji |
| 2015-10-17 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Iraqi forces defused booby traps and hunted down holdout jihadists in the strategic Baiji area Friday as part of their biggest advance against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group in months. Baiji lies at a crossroads between several frontlines and control of the area is seen as the key to progress in other regions, including Anbar province where forces were also closing in on ISIS strongholds. Iraq's army, police and counter-terrorism services, as well as thousands of fighters from the Popular Mobilization (Hashed al-Shaabi), continued to gain significant ground in and around Baiji, officers said. "Iraqi forces are moving deep into Baiji, they have retaken the industrial area and several other neighborhoods," an army colonel told AFP. "We control about 60 percent of the city, there are not so many Daesh [Islamic State] fighters left and they are trapped," he said, using an Arabic acronym for ISIS. After retaking most of the refinery to the north of the city, security forces were sweeping the sprawling complex for bombs and die-hard jihadists. "Inside the refinery, our forces are defusing booby traps and looking for the last Daesh [Islamic State] holy warriors we believe are still holed up in some buildings," he said. The refinery, 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 to no longer be of huge strategic interest. |
| Posted by:Fred |