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ISIS jihadists besiege Iraq’s largest oil refinery

Jun 18, 2014 1:43 pm By Robert Spencer

Beiji oil refinery“Some 275 armed American forces are being positioned in and around Iraq to help secure U.S. assets” — this absolutely ridiculous, as 275 troops aren’t going to be able to do anything against either ISIS or the Iranians. The Sunni-Shi’ite jihad is going to play out in Iraq. American intervention to prop up the Maliki regime would only play into the hands of the “Death to America” Iranians. The best thing the U.S. can do at this point is stay far out of the conflict and adopt a policy of containment to try to keep the conflict from spreading and prevent jihadis from coming to the West. But the Obama Administration will almost certainly do something foolish and harmful to American interests instead.

“ISIS Militants Besiege Iraq’s Largest Oil Refinery,” Associated Press, June 18, 2014 (thanks to Kenneth):

BAGHDAD — Islamist militants laid siege to Iraq’s largest oil refinery Wednesday, threatening a facility key to the country’s domestic supplies as part of their ongoing lightning offensive, a top security official said.

The attack comes as militants have seized wide swaths of territory in Iraq — and as the specter of the sectarian warfare that nearly tore the country apart and the doubts that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion now haunt those trying decide how to respond.

The official said fighters of the al Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) began their attack on the Beiji refinery, some 155 miles north of Baghdad late Tuesday night. The attack continued into Wednesday morning, with fighters targeting it with mortar shells. A small fire started on the facility’s periphery, he said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.

The Beiji refinery accounts for a little more than a quarter of the country’s entire refining capacity — all of which goes toward domestic consumption for things like gasoline, cooking oil and fuel for power stations.

Any lengthy outage at Beiji risks long lines at the gas pump and electricity shortages, adding to the chaos already facing Iraq.

The Sunni militants of the Islamic State have vowed to march to Baghdad and the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf in the worst threat to Iraq’s stability since U.S. troops left. The three cities are home to some of the most revered Shiite shrines. The Islamic State also has tried to capture Samarra north of Baghdad, home to another major Shiite shrine.

Some 275 armed American forces are being positioned in and around Iraq to help secure U.S. assets as President Barack Obama also considers an array of options for combating the Islamic militants, including airstrikes or a contingent of special forces.

The White House has continued to emphasize that any military engagement remains contingent on the government in Baghdad enacting political reforms and ending sectarian tensions, which had been on the rise even before the Islamic State’s incursion last week, with thousands killed since late last year.

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Filed Under: Iraq, Sunni-Shi'ite Jihad Tagged With: featured


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Comments

  1. jihad3tracker says

    Jun 18, 2014 at 1:49 pm

    NOW IT IS GETTING REALLY INTERESTING —

    Get your imaginations in gear, and concoct the worst possible developments to come in the next week or thereabouts.

    I will bet dollars to doughnuts that all of your worst predictions are WAY too mild.

    The speed at which this is going downhill is beyond even my pessimism.

  2. John C. Barile says

    Jun 18, 2014 at 1:53 pm

    I’m not surprised that this is ISIS’ immediate target; it’s got to be a far more strategic target than the Shia’s holy cities; more of an immediate and attainable goal than Baghdad or Damascus.

    • John C. Barile says

      Jun 18, 2014 at 3:55 pm

      As far as I know, Beiji has fallen to ISIS in these past few hours.

    • John C. Barile says

      Jun 18, 2014 at 4:02 pm

      My guess is that ISIS reached a high-water mark in Syria; their offensive in Iraq has slowed, but not stopped. If I gave any more attention to breaking news than I already do, then you would rightly say I was playing armchair general or amateur strategic analyst. I did like board games as a boy, though.

      • John C. Barile says

        Jun 18, 2014 at 4:06 pm

        Grass-roots political organizing was rather (remotely) like carving out turf in embattled Beirut; that was a handy analogy back then [early Eighties].

  3. TimArnold says

    Jun 18, 2014 at 2:17 pm

    275 US soldiers against thousands of be-heading Jihadists. How does Obama expect this to play out on cellphone video over the next week. Lord help us.

    • umbra says

      Jun 19, 2014 at 5:00 am

      Up to 275 more US prisoners to be traded for gitmo inmates … a possible obama game plan.

  4. Charlie Griffith says

    Jun 18, 2014 at 2:22 pm

    Thanks, Mr Spencer , for using that “C” word…..containment.

    I wish that we’d ‘contain’ all of these artificial Muslim “entities” in a vacuum sealed capsule to be launched into a permanent orbit somewhere beyond the Milky Way, so long as these Muslims can’t pollute outer space.

    Any Muslims somehow left here on Earth, especially those with United States issued passports can be dealt with individually and deported in due course to their country of origin. Those claiming to be “anchored” here by birth can be deported to the home country of one of their parents.

    Close our Embassies and Consulates inside Muslim “entities”.

    Who needs Muslims? ….for what constructive purpose?

    • Rose says

      Jun 19, 2014 at 2:48 am

      Who needs Christians, Jews, Hindus or any religious groups for that matter? Now is not the time to be blaming religion on what is going on. The fact is We are looking at resource wars here. Climate change is rearing its ugly head and causing chaos across the globe. Follow the water and oil and this will lead you to the root causes of almost all conflicts across the globe.

      • JeffS says

        Jun 25, 2014 at 9:53 am

        Yes Islam is benign, or just like all the other religions. They’re the only religion murdering people every day in its name, but Islam’s peachy, and how dare anyone attribute anything bad to it, even if ISIS itself is attributing its atrocities to Islam. Yes, it’s all the fault of global warming and oil, AKA the West, and those poor noble third-worlders never did anything naughty in their lives, and if they did, it’s all our fault. If we Westerners stop being greedy for oil and polluting the environment, the menace of Islam will evanesce, and we’ll all live happily ever after in multicultural peace, caring and harmony. Now let’s all join hands and sing Kumbaya.

  5. mariam rove says

    Jun 18, 2014 at 2:30 pm

    I took 2 of my clients out to lunch yesterday. Knowing that I am Iranian, they asked me what is going on in Iraq and why. I responded to them: Read the Koran and study Islam and you will figure it out!!! Some how that ended the conversation! M

    • TimArnold says

      Jun 18, 2014 at 2:41 pm

      We’ll put. We need honest discussions about Islam around America and other free nations. Sharia requires an absence of free speech to grow. It’s like a sick demonic mushroom that must grow in the dark.

  6. Uri says

    Jun 18, 2014 at 2:33 pm

    The best thing the U.S. can do at this point is stay far out of the conflict and adopt a policy of containment to try to keep the conflict from spreading and prevent jihadis from coming to the West.
    ——–

    Make up your mind, Spence. Just yesterday you were bitching at Obama for being an isolationist and doing just what you recommend here.

    • John C. Barile says

      Jun 18, 2014 at 3:52 pm

      Containment harmonizes with protecting our own citizens and interests. Consistency is correctly identifying those interests and resolutely defending and advancing them, which Mr. Obama has failed at.

  7. Walter Sieruk says

    Jun 18, 2014 at 2:34 pm

    Once again the murderous militant Islamic forces of ISIS with all it’s evil madness brings to mind that this is explained ,in part, in the Bible. Which teaches “The hearts of men are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts while they live, and afterwards they join the dead.” Ecclesiastes 9:3. [NIV]

    • Uri says

      Jun 18, 2014 at 2:43 pm

      Proverb 8

      For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death.”

      ALL WHO HATE ME LOVE DEATH!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Muhammadans are maggots.

  8. Rick Habecker says

    Jun 18, 2014 at 2:36 pm

    Well, here we go with another spike in the price of oil- up again!

    • Judi says

      Jun 18, 2014 at 6:02 pm

      Rick – we here in the UK already pay the equivalent of $10 a gallon. I really don’t know what we’ll do if it gets much higher! I think we’ll have to think about ditching the car and taking up jogging.

  9. Walter Sieruk says

    Jun 18, 2014 at 2:42 pm

    The men who are engaging in the violence of the Islamic forces of ISIS may very well be under the curse of the Bible. For Psalm 14;11. reads “May disaster hunt down men of violence.” [NIV]

  10. Walter Sieruk says

    Jun 18, 2014 at 2:54 pm

    There again I made mistake the Psalm verse is 140:11. not 14;11. Nevertheless, Be it ISIS or al Qaeda or al Shabaab or any other Islamic terror group. The members of all these Islamic groups engage in the violence and killing of the militant jihadism of Islam, Sura 2:216. 9:111,112. 47:4. In other words such deadly jihadist terror groups are the outcome or fruits of this death cult which is Islam. Jesus did teach”By their fruit you will recognize them.” Matthew 7:20. [NIV]

  11. Jack Ripper says

    Jun 18, 2014 at 7:00 pm

    Obama will have less success in his “containment” ( as if he wanted to) of the caliphate than did the French with their Maginot line containment of the murderous fascists that attacked them.

  12. Nic says

    Jun 19, 2014 at 9:19 am

    I wouldn’t be TOO quick to dismiss the 275 soldiers.

    If they are properly equipped and led, and are defending a fixed position, and can be re-supplied, then 275 professional soldiers can be a devastating opponent against lightly-armed, poorly co-ordinated militia.

    ISIS have only had to deal with minor skirmishes, and virtually undefended towns/cities. Imagine such a group – even if 2000 strong – attacking a defended position with interlocking fields of heavy machine gun fire, mines, mortars, snipers, and so forth. It would be a bloodbath.

  13. tpellow says

    Jun 19, 2014 at 12:15 pm

    Supplementary.

    “ISIS takes control of Iraq’s largest refinery in Bayji”

    Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2014/06/isis_take_control_of_iraqs_lar.php##ixzz356PQaKHh

    • tpellow says

      Jun 19, 2014 at 12:23 pm

      Update.

      “Iraq Forces ‘Retake’ Oil Refinery From ISIS”

      http://news.sky.com/story/1285416/iraq-forces-retake-oil-refinery-from-isis

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