The Iraqi army and volunteer militia fighters, who are mostly Shi’ite, launched an assault today to retake the city of Baiji in northern Iraq from Islamic State militants, an Iraqi military spokesman said. Baiji is near the country’s largest oil refinery and is only 150 km away from Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city which fell to the hardline Sunni militants of Islamic State in June 2014.
The city has since changed hands several times in fierce clashes.
The Hashid Shaabi militiamen and Iraqi army soldiers began their assault from the south today and managed to fight their way into the center of the city, military spokesman Colonel Mohammed al-Asadi said.