Paramilitary troops kill Islamic State fighter near Iraq’s Baiji
Baiji oil refinery
Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi paramilitary forces killed on Wednesday an Islamic State militant near the oil refinery district of Baiji, 200km (130 miles) north of Baghdad, a security source was quoted as saying.
Speaking to the privately-owned Almaalomah website, the source said that a force from the Popular Mobilization Force killed an IS militant while riding a motorbike near Baiji district.
The desert area around Baiji is totally secured against any possible threat by Islamic State gangs, the source added.
Iraqi officials announced in November 2014 that their forces drove out Islamic State fighters from the oil refinery town of Baiji and that the town “had been completely liberated”.
Islamic State seized Baiji in June 2014 during a lightning advance through northern Iraq and laid siege to the refinery.
The jihadist group had seized large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, when it proclaimed a “caliphate” and imposed its rule over some 10 million people.
Last December, former Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi declared final victory over the terrorist Islamic State group three years after the militant group captured about a third of Iraq’s territory.
Addressing a international media conference held at the journalists syndicate in Baghdad on Saturday, December 9, Abadi said, “Our troops gained full control on the Iraqi-Syrian borders. We announce the end of war against Islamic State.”