Iraqi soldiers battling the muslim jihadists in Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) recaptured the heart and outlying districts of the town of Beiji, home to the country's largest oil refinery, state television and a provincial governor said Tuesday.
Retaking Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, could allow Iraqi forces a base to attack neighboring Tikrit, taken by the extremists in their lightning advance this summer. But troops backed by Shiite militias faced pockets of stiff resistence around Beiji, hindering their advance.
State television quoted the top army commander in Beiji, Gen. Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi, as saying troops recaptured the city's local government and police headquarters at the center of the town. It aired what appeared to be archival footage of the town showing Iraqi army troops firing their weapons from behind sand barriers.
Al-Saadi later spoke to state television by telephone but the line appeared to be cut off after he said his forces were meeting stiff resistance.
Raed Ibrahim, the governor of Salahuddin province, where Beiji and Tikrit are located, said the military had secured about 75 percent of the town as of Tuesday, retaking the center of the town and outlying districts. He said government forces continued to meet fierce resistance from the militants, whom he said were using suicide bombers to stall the military's advance.
Ibrahim also told The Associated Press that many militants booby-trapped buildings in Beiji, posing an added threat.
A senior military official earlier told the AP that troops had recaptured of about 75 percent of Beiji. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.
Government officials in Baghdad offered no immediate comment on the news. Al-Saadi said Saturday that his forces had recaptured most of the city and that it would soon be entirely rid of ISIS fighters.
There was no word on the fate of the refinery, which lies on the outskirts of the town and has been besieged by ISIS fighters since June. The small army unit inside the refinery, resupplied and reinforced by air for months, successfully resisted wave after wave of extremist assaults.
Iraq's army and security forces partially have regrouped after melting away in the face of the summer's ISIS offensive. In recent weeks, they recaptured a string of small towns and villages, but taking Beiji would be strategically significant in what is shaping up to be a drawn-out campaign against the extremists.
Recapturing Beiji also would be a major boost for Iraq's Shiite-led government and could pave the way for a fresh offensive to drive ISIS militants from the nearby city of Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown and the capital of Salahuddin province.
The Beiji campaign has been carried out by a contingent of troops and security forces drawn from a nearby military base and airlifted from government-controlled areas elsewhere.
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