FROM 'TIMES OF INDIA'E-PAPER
BAGHDAD: Sunni extremists have taken control of most of Iraq's largest oil refinery, located in Baiji in northern Iraq, an official at the refinery said on Wednesday.
"The militants have managed to break in to the refinery. Now they are in control of the production units, administration building and four watch towers. This is 75 per cent of the refinery," an official speaking from inside the refinery said.
He says clashes continue near the main control room with security forces.
READ ALSO: India in dark about location of its kidnapped nationals in Iraq
The oil refinery in Baiji in northern Iraq. (Reuters file photo)
Obama to meet with congressional leaders
US senator Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, said on Tuesday that President Barack Obama had invited the leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives to the White House on Wednesday for a meeting on Iraq.
He told reporters at the Capitol that he, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, house Speaker John Boehner and house Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi had been invited.
US has sent its aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush to the Gulf following the jihadist surge in Iraq.
A White House official confirmed the meeting, describing it as part of Obama's "ongoing consultations" with congressional leaders on foreign policy issues, including Iraq.
McConnell said he was looking forward to the meeting.
READ ALSO: We may strike Iraq jihadists, ally with foe Iran, US says
"I'm anxious to hear what he has to say. He's the president of the United States," the Kentucky lawmaker said.
Iran will not hesitate to defend Iraq holy sites
Iran will not hesitate to defend Shia Muslim holy sites in neighbouring Iraq against "killers and terrorists", Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday, following rapid advances by Sunni militants there over the past week.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. (Reuters photo)
Speaking on live television, Rouhani said many people had signed up to go to Iraq to defend the sites and "put the terrorists in their place". He added that veteran fighters from Iraq's Sunni, Shia and Kurdish communities were also "ready for sacrifice" against these militant forces.
Saudi Arabia warns Iran
Saudi Arabia gave an apparent warning to arch-enemy Iran on Wednesday by saying outside powers should not intervene in the conflict in neighbouring Iraq. Foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal also said Iraq was facing a full-scale civil war with grave consequences for the wider region.
His remarks coincided with an Iranian warning that Tehran would not hesitate to defend Shia Muslim holy sites in Iraq against "killers and terrorists", following advances by Sunni militants there.
READ ALSO: We will do everything to protect Iraq shrines, Iranian president says
The toughening of rhetoric about Iraq by the Gulf's two top powers suggested that Tehran and Riyadh have put on hold recent plans to explore a possible curbing of their rivalry across the region's Sunni-Shia sectarian divide.
The Sunni-Shia edge to the Saudi-Iran struggle has sharpened in the last few years. The two see themselves as representatives of opposing visions of Islam: the Saudis as guardians of Mecca and conservative Sunni hierarchy, and Shia Iran as the vanguard of an Islamic revolution in support of the downtrodden.
Iraqi Shia women shout slogans supporting the Iraqi army in Najaf. (Reuters photo)
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, an ally of Iran, has appealed for national unity with Sunni critics of his Shia-led government after a stunning offensive through the north of the country by Sunni Islamist militants over the past week.
Maliki has accused Saudi Arabia of backing the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), who want to carve out a Sunni caliphate in the heart of the Middle East.
Speaking at a gathering of Arab and Muslim leaders in Jeddah, Prince Saud urged nations racked by violence to meet the "legitimate demands of the people and to achieve national reconciliation (without) foreign interference or outside agendas".
"This grave situation that is storming Iraq carries with it the signs of civil war whose implications for the region we cannot fathom," he said. 'Internal disturbance'
He did not elaborate but the remarks appeared aimed at Shia Iran, which is also an ally of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The prince said the three-year-old civil war in Syria, where a largely Sunni Muslim uprising has failed to unseat Assad, had "helped to deepen the internal disturbance in Iraq".
This image uploaded on Saturday on the jihadist website Welayat Salahuddin allegedly shows members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia blamed the Iraqi crisis on Maliki, citing what it called years of "sectarian and exclusionary policies" by his government against Iraq's Sunni minority. Maliki and several Iranian officials have for months alleged that several Gulf Arab governments support ISIS.
And on Saturday, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said that "terrorist groups" were getting financial and political backing and weaponry from countries in the region and powerful Western states. He named no countries, but was alluding in part to Sunni Gulf Arabs.
Demonstrators chant pro-ISIS as they wave al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul. (AP photo)
Western diplomats say it is private Gulf Arab donors who follow an ultraconservative brand of Sunni Islam who appear the more likely source of ISIS's funding from the Gulf.
While the Saudi government has yet to specifically condemn ISIS by name, the group is no friend of Riyadh's, having battled the kingdom's allies in infighting among Sunni rebels in Syria. Riyadh last month designated ISIS a terrorist organization, underscoring concern that young Saudis hardened by battle could come home to target the ruling Al Saud family — as happened after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Shia Iraqi volunteers on their way to fight the ISIS jihadists. (Reuters photo)
Saudi Arabia and Iran had begun in recent months to explore ways to lower the temperature of what is widely seen as the region's most destructive bilateral relationship.
Not only do Tehran and Riyadh share the fear that Iraq may disintegrate into a sectarian bloodbath dangerous to all, in the short term ISIS's advance is likely to raise suspicions between them.
While Tehran sees Gulf Arab hands behind ISIS, Riyadh fears not only that Iran will intervene in Iraq but that it will do so in coordination with Iran's traditional adversary Washington, which is equally keen to roll back ISIS's territorial gains.
Any such cooperation on Iraq would advance Tehran's own tentative detente with the United States, a process the Islamic Republic began last year by agreeing to talks with major powers on its nuclear programme.
"The militants have managed to break in to the refinery. Now they are in control of the production units, administration building and four watch towers. This is 75 per cent of the refinery," an official speaking from inside the refinery said.
He says clashes continue near the main control room with security forces.
READ ALSO: India in dark about location of its kidnapped nationals in Iraq
The oil refinery in Baiji in northern Iraq. (Reuters file photo)
Obama to meet with congressional leaders
US senator Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the Senate, said on Tuesday that President Barack Obama had invited the leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives to the White House on Wednesday for a meeting on Iraq.
He told reporters at the Capitol that he, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, house Speaker John Boehner and house Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi had been invited.
US has sent its aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush to the Gulf following the jihadist surge in Iraq.
A White House official confirmed the meeting, describing it as part of Obama's "ongoing consultations" with congressional leaders on foreign policy issues, including Iraq.
McConnell said he was looking forward to the meeting.
READ ALSO: We may strike Iraq jihadists, ally with foe Iran, US says
"I'm anxious to hear what he has to say. He's the president of the United States," the Kentucky lawmaker said.
Iran will not hesitate to defend Iraq holy sites
Iran will not hesitate to defend Shia Muslim holy sites in neighbouring Iraq against "killers and terrorists", Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday, following rapid advances by Sunni militants there over the past week.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. (Reuters photo)
Speaking on live television, Rouhani said many people had signed up to go to Iraq to defend the sites and "put the terrorists in their place". He added that veteran fighters from Iraq's Sunni, Shia and Kurdish communities were also "ready for sacrifice" against these militant forces.
Saudi Arabia warns Iran
Saudi Arabia gave an apparent warning to arch-enemy Iran on Wednesday by saying outside powers should not intervene in the conflict in neighbouring Iraq. Foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal also said Iraq was facing a full-scale civil war with grave consequences for the wider region.
His remarks coincided with an Iranian warning that Tehran would not hesitate to defend Shia Muslim holy sites in Iraq against "killers and terrorists", following advances by Sunni militants there.
READ ALSO: We will do everything to protect Iraq shrines, Iranian president says
The toughening of rhetoric about Iraq by the Gulf's two top powers suggested that Tehran and Riyadh have put on hold recent plans to explore a possible curbing of their rivalry across the region's Sunni-Shia sectarian divide.
The Sunni-Shia edge to the Saudi-Iran struggle has sharpened in the last few years. The two see themselves as representatives of opposing visions of Islam: the Saudis as guardians of Mecca and conservative Sunni hierarchy, and Shia Iran as the vanguard of an Islamic revolution in support of the downtrodden.
Iraqi Shia women shout slogans supporting the Iraqi army in Najaf. (Reuters photo)
Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, an ally of Iran, has appealed for national unity with Sunni critics of his Shia-led government after a stunning offensive through the north of the country by Sunni Islamist militants over the past week.
Maliki has accused Saudi Arabia of backing the militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), who want to carve out a Sunni caliphate in the heart of the Middle East.
Speaking at a gathering of Arab and Muslim leaders in Jeddah, Prince Saud urged nations racked by violence to meet the "legitimate demands of the people and to achieve national reconciliation (without) foreign interference or outside agendas".
"This grave situation that is storming Iraq carries with it the signs of civil war whose implications for the region we cannot fathom," he said. 'Internal disturbance'
He did not elaborate but the remarks appeared aimed at Shia Iran, which is also an ally of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The prince said the three-year-old civil war in Syria, where a largely Sunni Muslim uprising has failed to unseat Assad, had "helped to deepen the internal disturbance in Iraq".
This image uploaded on Saturday on the jihadist website Welayat Salahuddin allegedly shows members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant executing dozens of captured Iraqi security forces members at an unknown location in the Salaheddin province.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia blamed the Iraqi crisis on Maliki, citing what it called years of "sectarian and exclusionary policies" by his government against Iraq's Sunni minority. Maliki and several Iranian officials have for months alleged that several Gulf Arab governments support ISIS.
And on Saturday, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said that "terrorist groups" were getting financial and political backing and weaponry from countries in the region and powerful Western states. He named no countries, but was alluding in part to Sunni Gulf Arabs.
Demonstrators chant pro-ISIS as they wave al-Qaida flags in front of the provincial government headquarters in Mosul. (AP photo)
Western diplomats say it is private Gulf Arab donors who follow an ultraconservative brand of Sunni Islam who appear the more likely source of ISIS's funding from the Gulf.
While the Saudi government has yet to specifically condemn ISIS by name, the group is no friend of Riyadh's, having battled the kingdom's allies in infighting among Sunni rebels in Syria. Riyadh last month designated ISIS a terrorist organization, underscoring concern that young Saudis hardened by battle could come home to target the ruling Al Saud family — as happened after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Shia Iraqi volunteers on their way to fight the ISIS jihadists. (Reuters photo)
Saudi Arabia and Iran had begun in recent months to explore ways to lower the temperature of what is widely seen as the region's most destructive bilateral relationship.
Not only do Tehran and Riyadh share the fear that Iraq may disintegrate into a sectarian bloodbath dangerous to all, in the short term ISIS's advance is likely to raise suspicions between them.
While Tehran sees Gulf Arab hands behind ISIS, Riyadh fears not only that Iran will intervene in Iraq but that it will do so in coordination with Iran's traditional adversary Washington, which is equally keen to roll back ISIS's territorial gains.
Any such cooperation on Iraq would advance Tehran's own tentative detente with the United States, a process the Islamic Republic began last year by agreeing to talks with major powers on its nuclear programme.
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