06/19/2014 The New York TImes reports that Islamic militants have taken control of Iraq's largest oil refinery

By Ann Longmore-Etheridge
The New York TImes reports that Islamic militants have taken control of Iraq's largest oil refinery, located approximately 130 miles north of Baghdad. "The facility at Baiji is the first operating refinery to fall to the fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, who have swept through much of northern Iraq and had surrounded the refinery in Baiji for the past week, battling with a battalion of the Iraqi Army that had been backed up by air support. The capture of the refinery would provide a potentially rich source of income for ISIS, which already profits from its control of oil resources in eastern Syria," The Times notes. Later, however, a statement from the Iraqi military denied that the ISIS forces were in control of the refinery and claimed that its security forces were in charge there. Witnesses, however, claim that 17 storage tanks had been set on fire and that the troops guarding the refinery had surrendered and were sent home by the attackers. Other witnesses say that ISIS checkpoints have been put in place and that there are clouds of smoke rising from the facility.
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