Iraqi troops backed by Shiite militias recaptured key parts of the northern refinery town of Baiji from ISIS militants Sunday, a general said.
The commander of the Interior Ministry’s Quick Reaction Forces, Brig. Gen. Nassir al-Fartousi, told state TV that the Iraqi flag was raised over a local government building in Baiji and that troops were advancing to other areas, without elaborating.
The spokesman of Joint Operations Command, Brig. Gen. Saad Maan Ibrahim, said the security forces “are now controlling” the downtown Baiji area, describing the advance as an “important victory.”
“The enemy has suffered a defeat and has sustained heavy losses and we hope that the whole city will be cleared within a few days,” Maan told the Associated Press in a brief interview, saying “dozens” of ISIS militants had been killed.
There was no word on the fate of the contested refinery on the town’s outskirts, but Maan said the capture of Baiji would help Iraqi forces to better secure the nearby Baiji refinery – Iraq’s largest oil refining facility and key to the country’s domestic supplies.
Baiji, some 250 km north of Baghdad, fell to ISIS during its blitz across northern Iraq nearly a year ago, but the refinery facility has remained contested ground with ISIS militants and government forces battling for control. The town is also strategically significant as it lies on the road to ISIS-held Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city.
Iraqi and Kurdish forces have managed to roll back ISIS in many parts of the country with the help of US-led airstrikes, and recaptured the northern city of Tikrit in April. But last month the group scored a major victory by capturing Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province.
ISIS has used oil-smuggling to finance much of its operations.
Elsewhere, a suicide car bomb ripped through roadside restaurants at the entrance to the town of Baladruz in eastern Iraq, killing at least 15 people, police and provincial officials said.
The attack took place late Saturday at the entrance of Baladruz, which lies about 65 km northeast of Baghdad, and was claimed by ISIS.
“It hit a string of restaurants on the eastern side of town ... Most of the people there were truck drivers transporting goods between Baghdad and Kurdistan,” a police captain said.
The officer said 37 people were also wounded in the explosion. Khidhr Muslim Abed, a member of the Diyala provincial council, confirmed the toll.
ISIS claimed the attack in a statement posted on jihadi forums Sunday and said that one of those killed was a member of the counterterrorism unit in Iraq’s police.
The group named the suicide attacker as Ali al-Ansari.
Also, Britain is to expand its military training mission in Iraq in the coming weeks, Prime Minister David Cameron announced, saying the Iraqi army needed more help to deal with improvised bombs planted by ISIS fighters.
Cameron, speaking before a meeting of the Group of Seven industrial nations (G-7), said Britain would send 125 new military advisers to Iraq, most of whom would train the Iraqi army in how to counter improvised explosive devices or IEDs.
That will take the total number of British military trainers in Iraq up to 275, officials said, and the overall number of British personnel engaged in various roles against ISIS across the region up to around 900.
“We’re already the second largest contributor in terms of airstrikes in Iraq, and support for the Syrian opposition,” Cameron told reporters at the G-7 in Germany.
“But I’m announcing today that we’re increasing our training effort in Iraq. It’s a particular request the Abadi government has made, it’s a particular thing we’ve been working with the Americans on.”
