Rebels from a militant splinter group overran the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday and closed in on the biggest oil refinery in the country, making further gains in their rapid military advance against the government in Baghdad, according to Reuters.
The threat to the Baiji refinery came after militants seized the northern city of Mosul, advancing their aim of creating an independent region straddling the border between Iraq and Syria.
After destroying a police station in Baiji, local officials said that the insurgents withdrew after local tribal leaders persuaded them not to seize the refinery and power stations.
Should the Iraqi forces fail to recapture Baiji, the concequences for Iraq’s oil industry could be grave. The Baiji refinery can process 300,000 barrels per day and supplies oil products to most of Iraq’s provinces and is a major provider of power to Baghdad.
At least half a million residents of northern Iraq are reported to be on the move, with most attempting to flee to the Kurdish far north where border officials were overwhelmed and expecting refugee numbers to increase sharply in coming days.
The Obama administration official who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity declined to provide details on what the United States might do to help Iraq, saying only that it was “considering (a) range of requests.”
“While the national security team always looks at a range of options, the current focus of our discussions with the government of Iraq and our policy considerations is to build the capacity of the Iraqis to successfully confront and deal with the threat posed by ISIL,” White House national security council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said in an emailed comment.
Separately, the New York Times reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki secretly asked the Obama administration to consider air strikes against militant staging areas as the threat from insurgents mounted last month.
The fall of Mosul, Iraq’s second-biggest city, is a blow to attempts to defeat the militants, who have seized territory in Iraq over the past year following the withdrawal of U.S. forces.
