Sunni Islamist militants have attacked Iraq’s main oil refinery, causing damage to the site in the latest stage of a surge that has included seizing territory across northern Iraq.
The militants clashed with security forces at the refinery Wednesday in Beiji, which is located about halfway between Baghdad and Mosul.
Militants took control of Mosul last week, and India’s foreign ministry reported Wednesday that 40 Indian construction workers have been kidnapped from the city. A spokesman said India has not received a demand for ransom and does not know the location of the missing workers. He also said 46 Indian nurses are stranded in militant-controlled Tikrit.
On Wednesday also, PetroChina, the single biggest investor in Iraq’s oil sector, is pulling some of its staff out of the Middle East nation, but production remains unaffected.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki gave a televised address vowing that his security forces would strike back against terrorism and described their earlier defeats at the hands of militants as a setback.
