Clashes between Iraq’s army and the ISIL militants continue unabated in northern Salahuddin province with Iraqi air force killing at least 45 militants.
According to a Monday statement by Iraqi Interior Ministry, the militants were killed in an airstrike by the Iraqi army’s air force in the northern districts of Salahuddin.
The statement further said, “The airstrike resulted in killing 45 ISIL fighters in the district of al-Sharqat and the areas of Makfoul, al-Mallaha, and al-Ba’aji in the district of Baiji,” online newspaper Iraqi News reported.
The development comes as the militants keep attacking the district of al-Dajil and the Baiji’s oil refinery.
“Baiji’s refinery and the district of al-Dajil are constantly under fierce ISIL attacks," Khaled al-Khazraji, the deputy president of the security committee in Salahuddin Provincial Council, told Iraqi News.
He further noted that al-Jazirah is the area from which the ISIL attacks are launched.
“The forces are not blockaded inside the refinery, but they need reinforcements,” Khazraji added.
Salahuddin’s top commander, Abdel-Wahab al-Saadi, said on April 18 that the Iraqi army had managed to secure the areas surrounding the refinery and enter the site following heavy clashes with the ISIL terrorists.
Iraq’s biggest oil refinery, which once produced some 300,000 barrels of refined petroleum products per day, had been besieged for days by ISIL terrorists who had also managed to take over a small part of the site’s complex.
Baiji is located on a main road to the northern city of Mosul, which is under ISIL control and its liberation can choke off the militants’ supply lines.
Northern and western parts of Iraq have been in chaos since ISIL started its campaign of terror in early June 2014. The terrorists are in control of Mosul and they have swept through parts of the country.
