Isis in Iraq:Baghdad hails the retaking of the Baiji oil refinery as the start of the long fightback

[Jefferson23]

Isis in Iraq: Baghdad hails the retaking of the Baiji oil refinery as the start of the long fightback against the Islamist militants



But it may not be quite so simple, especially for the civilians caught up in the crossfire, says Patrick Cockburn

Tuesday 18 November 2014

Iraqi security forces have re-entered the country’s biggest oil refinery at Baiji, the recapture of which would be the Baghdad government’s most important military success since Isis seized most of northern and western Iraq during the summer.

Iraqi state television has shown troops driving through the refinery after capturing the town of Baiji a week ago.

“The first Iraqi force, the anti-terrorism force called Mosul Battalion, entered Baiji refinery for the first time in five months,” police Colonel Saleh Jaber of the Baiji refinery protection force told one news agency. For five months a small garrison of government troops and Shia militia had held on to parts of the refinery, even though they were often so short of food they were reduced to living off tomato paste.

Isis fighters are reported by other sources to have now withdrawn east across the river Tigris to towns and villages that they still control.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-in-iraq-baghdad-hails-the-retaking-of-the-baiji-oil-refinery-as-the-start-of-the-long-fightback-against-the-islamist-militants-9868930.html

[louis-t]

1. It will be a long fight back.

But it will be mostly their fight. We will help, but they have to do the work.

Dear Iraqis,
Sorry, I know we fucked up your country, but this will make you stronger. Us getting more involved will not speed the process up. Us installing another puppet regime will not give you long-lasting stability. You live in the most unstable part of the world. You have to learn to deal with it. Outsiders cannot solve your problems for you.

Signed, a country that is sick of war.

[upaloopa]

2. So what is Cheney thinking watching all this

fighting over oil that he and his buddies laid claim to back when he had his secret meetings in the White House?
What are the PNAC boys saying watching the fighting that they can't get in on?

[JayhawkSD]

3. And , of course, there are parts of the story we don't talk about.

The Iraqi air force has dropped some 30 to 35 barrel bombs on Aziz Balad, an Isis-held town east of Sammara which has long been surrounded and is short of gasoline and medical supplies. On 1 September, one such bomb fell on a school in Al-Alam which was being used to house displaced people. It killed 31, including 24 children.

When Syria was using barrel bombs we were horrified and could not wait to talk about the horror and inhuminity of them. The media showed film clips, described them as beimg indescribably destructive and demanded that we do something to stop Assad from using them.