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Militants hit Iraq's biggest refinery

Saudi Arabia warns of civil war

AFP, Baghdad
Militants attacked Iraq's main oil refinery yesterday as they pressed a major offensive, while Baghdad vowed to "face terrorism" amid warnings the country could fall apart.
But even as officials touted progress, militants seized three villages in northern Iraq and India said 40 of its nationals had been kidnapped in Mosul, a city whose capture last week by insurgents marked the beginning of the onslaught.
With regional tensions rising, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic republic "will do everything" to protect Shiite shrines in Iraqi cities against the militant assault.
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And Saudi Arabia warned of the risks of a civil war in Iraq with unpredictable consequences for the region.
Washington has already deployed an aircraft carrier to the Culf and sent marines to bolster security at its embassy in Baghdad, but President Barack Obama has insisted a return to combat in Iraq for IIS soldiers is noton the cards.
Secretary of State John Kerry has, however, said that drone strikes could be used.
"We will face terrorism and bring down the conspiracy," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed in televised remarks, adding that "we will teach (militants) a lesson and strike them."
He also said that the country's security forces, which wilted in the face of a major militant offensive that in a matter of days overran all of one province and chunks of three more, had suffered a "setback" but had not been defeated.
Maliki's security spokesman
Lieutenant General Qassem Atta later said security forces would fully take back control of Tai Afar, a Shiite town in north Iraq that lies along a strategic corridor to Syria, by today morning, after days of fighting with militants.
Control of the town, he said, would provide a base from which to launch operations to recapture Mosul.
The crisis, which has displaced hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, threatens to carve up the country, while the assault on the Baiji oil refinery early yesterday will likely further spook international oil markets.
The attack on the refinery complex, in Salaheddin province north of Baghdad, was launched before dawn, according to a senior official and a refinery employee.
Though Iraqi forces managed to kill 40 militants and repel the attack, according to Atta, some tanks containing refined products caught fire. The official and employee said security forces suffered casualties, but Atta did
not provide details.
The refinery was shut down and some employees evacuated on Tuesday due to a drop in demand caused by the militant drive, which is being spearheaded by jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
World oil producers have cautiously watched the unfolding chaos in Iraq, which currently exports around 2.5 million barrels of oil per day, but have stressed that the country's vast crude supplies, mostly in the south, are safe -for now.
The swift advance of militants has sparked international alarm, with the UN's envoy to Baghdad warning that the crisis was "life-threatening for Iraq".
Analysts suggested that the country could unravel, surviving at best as a federal state.
"Never before has the prospect of partition of Arab Iraq been more of a possibility," said Fanar Haddad, a research fellow at the Middle East
Institute of the National University of Singapore.
John Drake, an expert on Iraq with British security group AKE, was asked if Iraq could remain united.
"I don't think it's impossible, but it is highly unlikely," was his verdict.
Police and officials reported that militants had yesterday moved into the Shiite Turkmen area of Bashir in Kirkuk province and also seized three villages in Salaheddin province.
The foreign ministry in New Delhi, meanwhile, announced yesterday that 40 Indian construction workers had been abducted in Mosul.
Spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said 46 Indian nurses were also stranded in the militant-held Iraqi city of Tikrit, waiting for the turmoil to subside.
ISIL fighters kidnapped 49 Turks including diplomats and children from the Turkish consulate in Mosul on Wednesday last week, after earlier seizing31 Turkish truck drivers.
In a bid to see off the militant
offensive, Maliki sacked several top security commanders on Tuesday evening, and then stood alongside several of his main rivals in a rare display of unity among the country's fractious political leaders.
Maliki also ordered that one officer face court martial for desertion.
The dismissals came after soldiers and police fled en masse as insurgents on Tuesday last week swept into Mosul, a city of two million.
Some abandoned their vehicles and uniforms when faced with the insurgents led by ISIL fighters, but also include loyalists of executed dictator Saddam Hussein.
After taking Mosul, militants captured a major chunk of mainly Sunni Arab territory stretching towards the capital.
Despite the early poor performance of the security forces. Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby said Iraqi troops, with help from Shiite volunteers, were "stiffening their