June 18, 2014

As much as 75 percent of Iraq’s enormous Baiji oil refinery, 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of Baghdad, reportedly fell to Sunni militants this morning. Forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) had surrounded the refinery for the past week, battling with a battalion of the Iraqi army that that was backed by helicopter gunships. The Baiji refinery is the largest in Iraq. Its capture deprives the Iraq government of an important source of fuel and provides the insurgents with a potentially lucrative source of income. Besides the refinery, the Baiji complex includes a 600-megawatt power plant, which supplies electric power to much of northern Iraq.

On June 16, ISIS militants seized the small city of Tal Afar in northwestern Iraq. Responding to the situation, the United States Department of Defense ordered the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier, accompanied by two warships, to the Persian Gulf.

U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry (U.S. Senate)

President Hassan Rouhani of Iran. (The Office of Hassan Rouhani)

In Washington, D.C., on Monday, Secretary of State John F. Kerry stated that the United States was open to working with Iran to help stop the insurgents’ advances in Iraq. In Tehran, the Iranian capital, President Hassan Rouhani declared that his government would not rule out working with the United States to try to stabilize Iraq: “We have said that all countries must unite in combating terrorism.” Iran, a close ally of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Shi`ite-led government, has reportedly sent members of the Revolutionary Guards, an elite military force, into Iraq to help al-Maliki fight the Sunni militants.

Additional World Book articles:

• Iraq War
• Kurdistan
• Iraq 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• Iraq 2013 (a Back in Time article)
• Syria 2013 (a Back in Time article)