The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-led (ISIS) fighters have shot down an Iraqi military helicopter during clashes for control of the country’s largest oil refinery on Wednesday.
Eyewitnesses claim that rebels downed a military helicopter during the battle for the Baiji oil facility in Salahuddin province, northern Iraq. The government in Baghdad has yet to confirm the news.
ISIS militants seized the Baiji complex after clashing with security forces charged with protecting the area, according to an official source from the state-owned North Refineries Company.
“The ISIS militants stormed the refinery in the early hours of the morning and took control of some parts before they totally seized it,” said the source.
The Iraqi air force bombed areas surrounding the refinery after it was seized, causing fires in some waste oil reservoirs as well as an explosion in some fuel tanks, the official told the Anadolu Agency.
On Wednesday morning, flames reached parts of the refinery, forcing staff to leave. Work at the plant had been suspended since last Monday, delivering a “big blow to the Iraqi economy,” the NRC official said.
Baiji includes a number of sub-refineries which meets half of the country’s demand for oil derivatives, amounting to 600,000 barrels per day.
An employee at the refinery said that an unidentified number of security force personnel responsible for protecting the plant were killed, others wounded and some captured by ISIS militants.
The worker, who requested anonymity, also said that ISIS militants unfurled the group’s flag on an administrative complex near the refinery, and that the staff had left their work sites for an apartment complex near the facility.
ISIS, which already controls parts of Syria, has extended its reach into Iraq since 10 June, when it seized Iraq’s second-largest city Mosul and soon afterwards took near-complete control of the northern city of Tikrit.
Iraq has seen a marked increase in sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims in recent months, which the Iraqi government blames on ISIS.