Iraqi PM says defence of refinery town crucial to Daesh defeat

BAGHDAD — Winning the battle for control of an oil refinery town, north of Baghdad, is a key step towards  defeating the Daesh terror group, Iraq's prime minister said in remarks aired Tuesday, hours before a suicide attack killed 13 soldiers and allied militiamen in the western Anbar province.

"Victory at Beiji is a crucial step towards ending Daesh's presence in Iraq," Haider Al Abadi told military and militia commanders during a visit to the area the day before.

The military retook the town of Beiji from the extremists in November, but government forces and allied Shiite militiamen there have come under mounting pressure in recent weeks. Militants now control up to half of the town and oil refinery to the north, a top commander told The Associated Press.

Abadi said the extremist group, which controls large swaths of territory in western and northern Iraq, is throwing significant resources into the battle for Beiji. 

"Daesh wants to punch a hole there so our situation, not just in Beiji, but in the entire area, becomes untenable. The collapse [of Iraqi forces] that the enemy wanted did not happen," he said in remarks aired by state television. "Beiji has become a key front for the defence of Samarra, Salahuddin [province] and even Baghdad."

Samarra is home to an important Shiite shrine that was bombed by suspected Sunni extremists in 2006, triggering widespread sectarian violence that claimed tens of thousands of lives.

The oil refinery in Beiji, 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, has not operated since Daesh seized the town as part of its blitz across much of northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014. There are no residents left in Beiji, which has suffered massive destruction over the past 14 months. However, control of Beiji gives government forces a key foothold for any future campaign to take back Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a suicide bomber in an explosives-laden army vehicle drove into a group of soldiers and Sunni militiamen southeast of the Daesh-held city of Ramadi, the provincial capital of the vast Anbar province west of Baghdad, killing 13 and injuring seven, according to security officials. Tuesday's attack came four days after up to 50 soldiers were killed in two separate ambushes, also near Ramadi.

In Baghdad, an army helicopter pilot was killed Monday in the upscale Al Mansour neighbourhood by an explosive device attached to his car, according to security and hospital officials. The officials and Daesh, which claimed the attack, identified him as Col. Ahmed Zarzour.

On Tuesday, a major in the interior ministry's intelligence agency was killed in a similar attack in northern Baghdad, according to the officials. It was not immediately clear who killed him.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.