Iraq Attempting to Break IS Siege of That Nation's Largest Oil Refinery

Obama Don't Care.

Iraq forces are advancing to break the siege.

Iraqi security forces said they advanced to within 2 km (1.2 miles) of the city of Baiji on Wednesday in a new offensive to retake the country's biggest oil refinery, besieged since June by Islamic State militants.

Backed by Shi'ite militias and army helicopters, government forces have swept through a desert area to the west of Baiji, aiming to recapture the city 200 km (130 miles) north of the capital.

They hope to cut off supply lines to militants encircling the refinery and gain control of a road leading to Mosul, the biggest city in the north, an army colonel told Reuters.

Islamic State fighters seized the city of Baiji and surrounded the sprawling refinery in June during a lightning campaign through northern Iraq. The group also controls a swathe of territory in neighboring Syria and has proclaimed a caliphate straddling both countries.

I ask the same questions I asked with respect to Khobani: With the IS' troops marshaled out in the open -- not hidden among civilians in a city -- why do they continue to exist at all?

There is only one reason: Because Obama is too conflicted and feckless to give the order to destroy them.

Ralph Peters made a similar point on Fox News earlier. We are not conducting air strikes, he said; we're blowing air-kisses. Real air strikes would be brutal things of 100 strikes a day, not these dainty little pinpricks.

posted by Ace at 11:12 AM

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