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Page added on July 5, 2015
Islamic State suicide bombers strike Iraqi refinery
Islamic State suicide bombers and fighters attacked the center of Iraq’s northern oil refinery town of Baiji overnight, forcing the army and Shi’ite fighters to pull back, military sources and the local mayor said on Sunday.
The town of Baiji and its refinery – Iraq’s largest – have been a battlefront for more than a year. The hardline Islamists seized the town in June 2014 as they swept through much of northern Iraq towards the capital Baghdad.
Control of Baiji neighborhoods has changed hands many times during the conflict. The latest Islamic State offensive comes after authorities said they controlled nearly the whole town and expected to drive insurgents from the refinery within days.
The militants attacked around 8 pm (1300 EDT) on Saturday with two suicide car bombings. The blasts were followed by fierce clashes that lasted until midnight and drove the army and mainly Shi’ite Hashd Shaabi forces from the center of town, two army colonels said.
Baiji mayor Mahmoud al-Jabouri said there had been a pattern of withdrawals by Islamic State fighters in the town followed by counter-offensives. “Their lethal weapons are suicide attacks and snipers, and this is why we have fighting back and forth.”
Army officers said the army and Hashd groups were preparing a response. “Islamic State fighters are still holding positions in three neighborhoods in Baiji and they are still receiving reinforcements,” said one of the army colonels.
In Anbar province west of Baghdad, witnesses said two rockets hit a crowd in the Islamic State-controlled provincial capital Ramadi on Saturday evening, killing at least 18 people.
They said a group of people had gathered after the daily Ramadan fast to play Muhaibis, a game where players have to identify a member of the opposing team who is hiding a ring.
“I heard a blast and saw fire coming from Dolphin Square. I ran to the place and saw vehicles carrying bodies and wounded covered with blood. They were innocent people playing a ring game; they were not making bombs,” said Haj Thamir Ahmed, a Ramadi resident who lives nearby.
In northwest Baghdad, at least three people were killed and 11 wounded when a bomb went off near a restaurant in the mainly Shi’ite district of Shulaa on Sunday morning, police and medical sources said. Another two people were killed by a bomb in Hussainiya on the city’s northern outskirts.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for those attacks, but statements in the name of Islamic State said the group carried car bombings on Saturday evening in Baghdad and Balad Roz which killed 10 people.
34 Comments on "Islamic State suicide bombers strike Iraqi refinery"
rockman on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 8:10 am
And this is how ISIS can cripple the Iraq govt. Refineries have a nasty ability of blowing up without anyone’s help. The oil pipelines are also vulnerable but can be repaired much quicker then a refinery. Hit the right spot in a refinery and it can be shut down for many months.
One of the key elements in defeating the Nazis was knocking out their fueling capabilities. And we did a good job of that without suicide bombers. One such bomber can be more effective in degrading the Iraq military then a battalion of rebels.
BobInget on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 10:01 am
Rockman’s observation is dead on.
End all wars tomorrow if jet fuel and diesel were denied combatants.
I spent the entire morning reading but didn’t
see this pivotal (24 hour old) news. Apparently
Greece and Boko Haram terrorist news overshadowed this poorly understood tactual
move by IS.
If IS succeeds in denying Baghdad, US and Iraqi forces fuel, product will need to be brought in overland by tanker convoy. During wars in Afghanistan we (US) were paying $5. a gallon for diesel and gasoline so delivered.
Rinse and repeat; Islamic State intend to
dismantle Mideast oil infrastructure not already under its control.
ghung on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 10:25 am
Both sides, of course, can play the same cards. I doubt IS can be much of a threat these days on camels. Keep identifying their sources of fuel and limit their mobility. Then again, the side with the most complex infrastructure is ultimately the more vulnerable. How long can both sides keep blowing things up before there’s no point? Even the ability to make industrial-age war is finite.
Plantagenet on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 11:23 am
We are one year into Obama’s war on IS, and no end is in sight. Does anyone have a plan? What is the strategy? What is Obama’s goal? What would victory look like?
Or is blowing stuff up an end in itself?
antaris on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 11:39 am
Bush’s war on Iraq, and no end was in sight. Did anyone have a plan? What was the strategy? What was Bush’s goal? What would victory haved looked like?
Or is blowing stuff up an end in itself?
Plantagenet on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 11:47 am
IS didn’t even exist when Bush was President.
Trying to blame Obama’s war on IS on Bush is silly.
apneaman on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 11:54 am
Hey Planty, we don’t need no stinking ISIS, we been at war with our life support systems for a long time and the war is almost over. Congratulations fellow cancer monkeys – the final victory is a hand.
Mass Extinction: It’s the End of the World as We Know It
“The idea of possible human extinction, coming not just from McPherson but a growing number of scientists (as well as the aforementioned recently published report in Science), is now beginning to occasionally find its way into mainstream consciousness.”
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31661-mass-extinction-it-s-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it
ghung on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 12:02 pm
“Or is blowing stuff up an end in itself?”
It’s called disaster capitalism.
Plantagenet on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 12:03 pm
Hey Apeman
If you are at war with your life support systems, then I suggest you stand down. Its not a good plan.
Cheers!
ghung on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 12:30 pm
Plant: “Trying to blame Obama’s war on IS on Bush is silly.”
No, it’s not. Bush, et al, either didn’t consider the inevitable outcome of creating a power vacuum in Iraq, or didn’t care. IS is the logical result of destabilising the region and our inability to pay the ongoing costs of remaining there as an occupying force. Blaming Obama for not being able to make a garden out of the bucket of shit he inherited is simplistic if not idiotic. There’s plenty to criticise Obama for, but I’ve seen few workable solutions which have been presented. That’s the nature of armchair assholes: They never offer any realistic solutions; just place blame when there are none.
Bush and his cronies pushed Humpty off the wall. Nothing you say can change that.
apneaman on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 12:36 pm
Why don’t you stand down planty? You are among the many cancer apes cheer leading 100 years of nat gas even as the great state of Alaska is being turned into a fucking dystopian wasteland (fire-flood) from that same addiction. Just more evidence that humans are not in control of anything and are only driven by getting the next dopamine fix. There will be no standing down – just falling down and screaming. My advice to you plant is to go enjoy some more of those beautiful rivers you have up there while you still can – while it’s still beautiful.
rockman on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 1:40 pm
Ghung – ” I doubt IS can be much of a threat these days on camels.” Perhaps. OTOH lots of folks didn’t think the NVA on bicycles coming down the HCM trail were much to worry about either. LOL
BobInget on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 2:46 pm
On this point (and others) I side with Ghung,
Rockman.
Here’s the skinny. IS controls 80% of the oil in Syria. IS sells crude to crooks in Turkey. Crooks return cash and refined product (in empty tankers). Turkey, a NATO country it will not do to bomb. IS intends to dominate wold’s oil supplies. Simple like that.
As long as Turkey and Pakistan play footsie with IS for oil and cash, it’s anyone’s game.
Oh BTW, fear of Iran putting out humongous amounts of oil if a Nuclear accord is reached,
are fallacious. Iran and Russia are selling what ever they must to China and India. (Chinese consumption Up 5.6 so far this year. India up 6.5% first six months). World consumption, minus Greece, up over 1.4%. ..
WHEN we reach 100 million barrels p/d in 2016, we will be short, at minimum 3 million barrels.
If you still believe we need economic prosperity
to reach 100 M B,. think again. I hate to break it to our ‘Uncle Harry’ but this nation and forty others are engaged in a never-ending oil war.
IN no time, world military will out consume all airlines.
President Obama simply didn’t change President
Bush’s or President Clinton’s tactics.
WE continue to support dictatorships just as we have for the last 70 years, if they have oil.
Davy on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 3:25 pm
Bob, are you maybe a bit too optimistic about China considering the last month?
Plantagenet on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 3:40 pm
People think Obama’s war on IS is all Bush’s fault want to pretend that obama is a weak wuss.
Rather then treating Obama as a man who makes decisions and forms his own legacy, they want to pretend that obama is a helpless child who has no power but to do what Bush tells him.
Poppycock! Obama is the president of the United States, and he deserves credit for his own legacy of unnecessary war and destruction, just as Bush gets credited for the unnecessary war and destruction he caused in his own administration.
Davy on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 3:43 pm
Planter, I am just plain tired of hearing about Obama. He is a wuss and will be gone soon. Just chill man. You are so childish with your Obama rants.
Plantagenet on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 3:47 pm
In particular, Obama supporters ignore the fact that IS invaded Iraq from SYRIA—-. They also ignore the fact that Obama and his allies funded and armed and trained the Syrian rebel fighters, many of whom promptly joined up with IS.
There is no doubt that Bush created a mess in Iraq—but by the time he left office the surge had won and democratic elections were rolling along nicely in Iraq.
Obama supporters also forget that it was Obama who completely withdrew ALL US forces from Iraq, while simultaneously giving the green light to the Shias to persecute and discriminate against the Sunnis, as documented in full detail by PBS NOVA.
Surrprise surprise obama moronic policies all backfired. The Shia persecution of the Sunni he signed off on triggered a Sunni uprising in Iraq. Obama’s financial and military support for Syria rebels metamorphosed into IS. And his moronic decision to withdraw all US forces from iraq led to the collapse of the Iraqi military and the rapid IS conquest of northern Iraq, which then required obama to flip flop and send US forces BACK INTO IRAQ.
Nope—the current war in Iraq is obama’s war.
Plantagenet on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 3:47 pm
Hi Davy
If you have something intelligent to say, lets hear it. Otherwise, please stop the childish rants.
Cheers!
Speculawyer on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 4:34 pm
It is not Bush’s war or Obama’s war.
It is Iraq’s war. Only they can win it. We are just there to drop some bombs to help. If the Iraqis can’t play a good ground game then our role is just to contain ISIS with bombs.
Plantagenet on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 4:46 pm
Actually, it is our war. In case you missed it, Obama declared war and started combat operations against IS over a year ago, and is currently seeking an official war powers act declaration from Congress. Obama has sent thousands of US soldiers back into Iraq, and just announced plans to move them out of Baghdad and into “forward bases” in Anbar Province near the combat lines with IS. Air strikes continue everyday, with 16 just yesterday on Raqua in Syria.
Why pretend we aren’t involved in a war, when we clearly are?
beamofthewave on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 5:23 pm
If we are going to have war then lets have WAR. Bring back the draft of all adults up to the age of 62 just like WW2, rationing of gas, victory gardens, no war profiteering with someone like Truman to oversee investigations, rationing of all items not necessary for war and the return of a command economy in which all industrial output is geared for war. Total mobilization with congressional members to engage in their own time on the front lines.
Plantagenet on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 5:29 pm
We don’t do wars like WWII anymore.
We do “police actions” and instead of declarations of war Presidents ask Congress to approve “war powers”, or if they don’t care about the constitution, they just send in the military without getting Congressional approval at all, as Obama has done in in his wars.
Cheers!
apneaman on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 5:31 pm
Planty, are you fucking serious?
“…but by the time he left office the surge had won…”
A Record of Unparalleled Failure
“So here are five straightforward lessons — none acceptable in what passes for discussion and debate in this country — that could be drawn from that last half century of every kind of American warfare:
1. No matter how you define American-style war or its goals, it doesn’t work. Ever.
2. No matter how you pose the problems of our world, it doesn’t solve them. Never.
3. No matter how often you cite the use of military force to “stabilize” or “protect” or “liberate” countries or regions, it is a destabilizing force.
4. No matter how regularly you praise the American way of war and its “warriors,” the U.S. military is incapable of winning its wars.
5. No matter how often American presidents claim that the U.S. military is “the finest fighting force in history,” the evidence is in: it isn’t.”
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175854/tomgram%3A_engelhardt,_a_record_of_unparalleled_failure/
beamofthewave on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 7:36 pm
That is because we are fighting war with both hands tied behind our back and if we are going to have war then lets have WAR. Draft everyone, and I mean everyone and everyone gets VA medical for free, uniforms for free and everyone fights in one way or the other and no one buys their way out like in the Civil war. The entire economy on war footing and we will beat IS, no doubt about that. Right now we aren’t even trying.
Plantagenet on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 8:06 pm
@beam
The US in unlikely to reinstate the draft or go to a “war footing” in the economy.
Obama can’t even get the Congress to vote to grant him “war powers” so he just continues on his own to wage war against IS illegally.
beamofthewave on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 10:39 pm
once we decide to win, we will change.
Plantagenet on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 11:04 pm
@beam
When do you think Obama will “decide to win?” Obama repeatedly says he still hasn’t decided on a strategy in the ME, much less “decided to win.”
IMHO its far more likely that Obama just intends to muddle along for the next two years and hand his mess off to President Hillary.
apneaman on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 11:31 pm
beamofthewave you guys are so ineffectual and incompetent you could not win a ham sandwich if you owned a pig farm.
Apneaman on Tue, 7th Jul 2015 1:47 am
Russia Celebrates Independence Day By Flying Strategic Bombers 200 Miles Off California Coast
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-06/russia-celebrates-independence-day-flying-strategic-bombers-200-miles-california-coa
Davy on Tue, 7th Jul 2015 3:29 am
Beam we will win most of the battles but not the war. The future is to those who own the ground. You can’t bomb and win you must occupy. ISIS may win the war through occupation but what will they have eventually? A desert wasteland with a population in overshoot to carrying capacity is all that is there. The oil is only as good as a global economy. Once the global economy is gone the oil will be of little use. ISIS land lacks food and water. ISIS is toast long term that is easy enough to see. Yet, Beam, if you are beaming in pride don’t be we Americans are toast too at least as a great power.
Boat on Tue, 7th Jul 2015 5:09 am
Isis is Sunnie, Bush picked a Shia government. “The great awakening” was basically hiring sunnis to fight so called insurgents. This worked great till the US left Iraq and Maliki fired most of the Sunni solders and their commanders and started repressing the Sunnies. Isis, “radical Sunnies” are now being joined by the “sons of Iraq” (ex Sunnie soliders} because they are not represented fairly in government and basically kicked out of the military.
Blame Bush or Obama, who cares but the big problem is there was no responsible group of Iraqis to hand off the country to. Still isn’t. Obama is still looking for that group in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya etc.
America just wants the oil to flow and countries to join in free trade.
charmcitysking on Tue, 7th Jul 2015 10:08 am
ghung on Mon, 6th Jul 2015 12:02 pm
“Or is blowing stuff up an end in itself?”
It’s called disaster capitalism.
———–
we have a winner.
Speculawyer on Tue, 7th Jul 2015 4:24 pm
“Obama declared war and started combat operations against IS over a year ago, and is currently seeking an official war powers act declaration from Congress.”
I love it when people contradict themselves in the same sentence. Obama CANNOT declare war. He lacks that authority. He’s stretching the bounds of the previous AUMF. And Congress is too scared to declare war. They are content with letting Obama do whatever he wants to do and if things go bad, they’ll blame Obama. If things go well, they’ll try take credit.
But no one wants boots on the ground. Thus, this is no more of a war than Libya was. It is a military action but not a full blown war.
In fact I think we’ve basically just gone back to the 1990s . . . we are once again using our air superiority to contain Iraq. Just a bit more bombing this time since ISIS are whacked.
charmcitysking on Thu, 9th Jul 2015 4:41 am
“There is no doubt that Bush created a mess in Iraq—but by the time he left office the surge had won and democratic elections were rolling along nicely in Iraq.”
—-
This is utter nonsense. Anyone who was eligible for public office in Iraq was handpicked by Paul Bremer. Democratic elections? Hardly.