Iraqi Forces Retake Most of Strategic Oil Town
 

https://s.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/gp...6519e30eb8c404Iraqi soldiers battling the Islamic State group recaptured most of the town of Beiji, home to the country's largest oil refinery, state television and a provincial gover**r said Tuesday. The strategic town, 155 miles **rth of Baghdad, will likely be a base for a future push to take back Saddam Hussein's hometown just to the south, one of the main prizes overrun by the extremists last summer. But troops backed by Shiite militias faced pockets of stiff resistance around Beiji, hindering their advance. There was ** word on the fate of the refinery, which lies on Beiji's **rthern outskirts, but the advances in the town could help break the five-month siege of the facility by Islamic State fighters. Since June, a small army unit inside the refinery, resupplied and reinforced by air, has successfully resisted wave after wave of extremist assaults.




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