Posted on 05/08/2015 3:15:02 PM PDT by Opintel
The U.S. military is helping Iraqi forces pushback ISIS at a vital oil refinery.
The Baiji refinery is located between Kirkuk and Mosul, and it has been the target of ISIS militants since the extremist group first made major advances last summer. Baiji is Iraq’s largest oil refinery, and as such, is strategically important to the country for revenues and for domestic fuel supplies.
“It actually also sits on a corridor that runs from the Tigris River valley to the Euphrates River valley. And so it's geographically significant as well as significant economically,” the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said at a press conference, offering up an explanation as to why the U.S. finds it so important to intervene. The U.S. is conducting air strikes on ISIS in order to aid Iraqi forces, but have thus far been unable to fully repel the attack.
(Excerpt) Read more at oilprice.com ...
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