KIRKUK: Iraqi forces recaptured the strategic oil town of Baiji on Friday in a significant victory over the Islamic State (IS) group.

Baiji is the largest town to be retaken by government troops since IS-led militants overran much of Iraq’s Sunni Arab heartland in June in their bid to create a “caliphate”.

The northern town, which had been out of government control for months, is located near Iraq’s main oil refinery on the main highway to the IS-held second city of Mosul.

Its recapture further isolates militants farther south in the city of Tikrit, the hometown of Saddam Hussein, although IS still controls large parts of Iraq as well as swathes of Syria.

“Iraqi forces were able to regain complete control of the town of Baiji,” Ahmed al-Krayim, the head of the Salaheddin provincial council, said.

Soldiers, police, Shia militiamen and tribesmen were all involved in the operation to retake Baiji, and are now pushing farther north, Mr Krayim said.

“Iraqi forces are on their way to the Baiji refinery,” north of the town, where security forces have held out against repeated militant attacks, he said.

Breaking through to the massive refinery would be another significant win for the government in Baghdad.

The operation to retake Baiji began more than four weeks ago when security forces and pro-government fighters started advancing towards the town from the south, slowed by bombs militants had planted on the way, and finally entered on October 31.

The nearby Baiji refinery once produced some 300,000 barrels of refined petroleum products per day, meeting 50 per cent of the country’s needs.

Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2014