BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces have cleared Daesh (the so-called IS) militants from most of the northern town of Baiji and hope to drive them from the nearby oil refinery within days, a spokesman for the Shiite militias leading the fight said on Thursday. Daesh fighters swept into Baiji, about 190 km north of Baghdad, a year ago during their lightning takeover of Iraq's Sunni Muslim provinces. The town and refinery — the country's largest — have been battlefronts since then. If the Shiite Hashd Shaabi fighters and Iraqi security forces regain full control around Baiji, it could help them push north toward the Daesh-held city of Mosul and offset losses to the Sunni militants in the western province of Anbar. Ahmed Al-Asadi, a Hashd Shaabi spokesman, said there were still “pockets of resistance” to the northeast and northwest of the town, and Daesh fighters were trying to launch attacks from Siniya village, 5 km to the west. — Reuters
