Iraqi troops reclaim crucial oil refinery

BAGHDAD — Iraqi government troops backed by Shiite militia fighters drove out Islamic State militants from a key oil refinery north of Baghdad in a wide-scale military operation, authorities said Friday.

The Joint Military Command said in a statement that the forces retook the Beiji refinery and the nearby town of Siniya, but did not provide additional details on the operation at the sprawling refinery, Iraq’s largest, which has been idle since June 2014. There was also no word on the fate of the nearby town of Beiji.

Beiji, about 155 miles north of Baghdad, fell to Islamic State during the group’s blitz across northern Iraq last year, but the refinery facility remained contested. The town is strategically significant as it lies on the road to Islamic Stateheld Mosul, Iraq’s secondlargest city.

The group has declared an Islamic “caliphate” in the territories it controls in Syria and Iraq, and has used oil smuggling to finance much of its operations.

The military operation was launched Monday as the second phase of a large-scale operation to drive Islamic State militants out of Salahuddin province in central Iraq. The government troops were backed by paramilitary forces, made up mainly of Shiite militias.