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| Iraq |
| Iraq army captures Qayyara oil region from ISIS |
| 2016-08-26 |
| [ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] The Iraqi army has dislodged ISIS from the Qayyara oil producing region located south of their de facto capital djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... , Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Thursday. This is the third day in a row they've liberated it. "The liberation of Qayyara is an important step toward achieving the larger goal of restoring Mosul province," according to tweets from Abadi’s media office. Iraqi forces last month captured the Qayyara airbase which it plans to use as a hub to support forces advancing on Mosul, 60 km (38 miles) further north. Abadi hopes to defeat the group this year by capturing Mosul, the largest city under its control in both Iraq and Syria. The Qayyara region produces heavy sour crude and has a small refinery to process some of the oil. Iraqi forces advance on Qayyarah [ArabNews] KIRKUK: Iraqi forces on Wednesday closed in on the center of Qayyarah, officials said, on the second day of an operation to recapture the town from radicals. Qayyarah lies on the western bank of the Tigris river, about 60 km south of Mosul, the Daesh group’s last major urban stronghold in Iraq. Brig. Gen. Najm Al-Juburi from the operations command for Nineveh, the province in which both Qayyarah and Mosul are located, said the town was now encircled. “There are only a few meters left before troops advancing from the west and troops coming from the east meet and complete the siege around Qayyarah,” he told AFP. He said the vast majority of villages around Qayyarah had been retaken since special forces launched the operation on Tuesday. Al-Juburi and other military officials in the area confirmed the progress and said that a nearby oil field and refinery had also been recaptured from Daesh. “Liberating Qayyarah will mean cutting off Mosul from the southern areas, which will make liberating Mosul much easier,” Juburi said. “This is a blow to the organization of Daesh because it affects their economy, and this after we retook an air base that is now going to be used to attack them,” he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |