Fierce fighting continued Friday at Iraq’s largest oil refinery as well as in scattered locations elsewhere in the war-ravaged country — including at a strategic northern airport.
It was the fourth day of a military and propaganda tug-of-war over the oil refinery in Baiji, where Iraqi forces are insisting on state television that they retain control even as ISIS militants boast of gains and fly their flags from watchtowers.
Some 270 Iraq troops battling for control of the vital facility are outnumbered and trapped inside, surrounded by between 300 and 500 ISIS fighters, ABC News reported Friday night.
The road to Baiji remains controlled by the militants, ABC reported.
“There is very little the Iraqi government can do to save or liberate those guys,” a US official told the network.
The jihadist group also claimed it had downed two Iraq military helicopters near the refinery, though the claim remained unconfirmed late Friday.
The Iraqi army officer in charge of protecting the refinery told CBS News that he fears the insurgents are regrouping for a major push to take the now non-functioning facility.
But while the refinery remained at an impasse, other strategic gains were announced by ISIS, the al-Qaeda offshoot that is attempting to create a terror safe haven spanning Syria and northern Iraq.
Rebels said they had taken control of the airport in the key city of Tal Afar, an important transfer point between the group’s holdings in Syria and the city of Mosul, which they captured two weeks ago.
Also Friday, some 30 Shiite militiamen were killed in some of the closest fighting yet to Baghdad, in Muqdadiyah, just 50 miles northeast of the capital.
In al-Qaim, near the Syrian border, 34 Iraqi security forces were reported killed in clashes. The strategic crossing was overrun by insurgents, who seized control of military equipment and freed allied prisoners.
The militants continued to use social media to appeal to recruits. On Friday, a slickly produced video purporting to be from ISIS was posted online, featuring five new fighters who claimed to be from Australia and the UK.
“Feel the honor we are feeling. Feel the happiness we are feeling,” one militant urges.
The Iraq government, meanwhile, announced on an army web site that its air force had killed 70 ISIS fighters in scattered airstrikes.