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Iraqs biggest oil refinery at Baiji is set to restart processing in about three months after government troops forced Islamic State armed militants away from the facility.

Iraqi troops will expel the militants from areas near a pipeline supplying the refinery 130 miles (209 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Colonel Khalaf al-Jabouri, a member of Iraqs anti-terror forces, said by phone. It will take about three months to restart the plant because workers have fled to other provinces, refinery units need maintenance and militants still control part of the pipeline network, according to Saad al-Azzawi, an engineer at Baiji.

We will secure the pipeline network that feeds oil to the refinery, al-Jabouri said yesterday. The Iraqi forces are now seeking to clear the path where the pipelines pass through to pump the oil to Baiji and also to export the crude to Turkey.

The Baiji plant has been at the center of repeated attacks since June as Islamic State militants attempted to seize the facility, seeking to secure fuel and funding for an Islamic caliphate they proclaimed in areas stretching across the Iraqi-Syrian border. Militants controlled the 310,000 barrel-a-day plant for about a week in June.

Iraq has started to assess damage at the facility and is removing any unexploded ammunition found nearby, said Fayyad Al-Nima, Iraqs deputy oil minister for refining affairs. The assessment may take one week, he said.

Baiji has about 40 percent of Iraqs refining capacity and its halt prompted the government to import more oil products and fuel, and tap strategic reserves to prevent shortages. State-run North Oil Co. manages the facility.

Iraq, with the worlds fifth-biggest crude reserves, is the largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, after Saudi Arabia. While fighting spurred companies including BP Plc (BP/) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) to evacuate workers from the countrys north, Iraq pumps and exports most of its crude from the Shiite-dominated south, where the Sunni insurgency has had little impact.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kadhim Ajrash in Baghdad at kajrash@bloomberg.net; Khalid Al-Ansary in Baghdad at kalansary@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nayla Razzouk at nrazzouk2@bloomberg.net Claudia Carpenter, Bruce Stanley

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Iraqs Biggest Oil Refinery to Reopen as Army Repels Militants

TIME World Iraq Iraq Accuses ISIS of Stealing 1 Million Tons of Grain Grain supplies thought to be routed to militant-controlled cities in Syria

Iraqs agriculture minister on Tuesday accused the extremist group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) of pilfering more than 1.1 million tons of grain from the countrys northern region and delivering it to militant-controlled cities in Syria.

The supplies of wheat and barley were reportedly stolen from Iraqs northwestern Nineveh Province and routed to the Syrian cities of Raqqa and Deir al-Zor, Falah Hassan al-Zeidan said, Reuters reports. The allegation, which could not be independently verified, came months after a similar claim of more than 40,000 tons of wheat being stolen from Nineveh and Anbar provinces and relocated for milling in Syria.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, many of them farmers, have been displaced since ISIS lightning offensive throughout the northwest in June.

[Reuters]

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Iraq Accuses ISIS of Stealing 1 Million Tons of Grain

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- The black flag of ISIS flies over government buildings. Police cars carry the group's insignia. The local football stadium is used for public executions. A town in Syria or Iraq? No. A city on the coast of the Mediterranean, in Libya.

Fighters loyal to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are now in complete control of the city of Derna, population of about 100,000, not far from the Egyptian border and just about 200 miles from the southern shores of the European Union.

The fighters are taking advantage of political chaos to rapidly expand their presence westwards along the coast, Libyan sources tell CNN.

The sources say the Derna branch of ISIS counts 800 fighters and operates half a dozen camps on the outskirts of the town, as well as larger facilities in the nearby Green Mountains, where fighters from across North Africa are being trained.

It has been bolstered by the return to Libya from Syria and Iraq of up to 300 Libyan jihadists who were part of ISIS' al Battar Brigade -- deployed at first in Deir Ezzor in Syria and then Mosul in Iraq. These fighters supported the Shura Council for the Youth of Islam in Derna, a pro-ISIS faction.

The council had been competing for superiority with another militant group, the Abu Salem Brigade, some of whose fighters' loyalties lay with al Qaeda, according to Noman Benotman, a former Libyan jihadist now involved in counter-terrorism for the Quilliam Foundation.

Al Qaeda's top envoy in Libya, Abdulbasit Azuz, left Derna after U.S. Special Forces captured Ahmed Abu Khatallah, an alleged ringleader of the Benghazi attacks in June. Azuz is now believed to be in Syria, Benotman told CNN.

Amateur video from the end of October showed a large crowd of militants affiliated with the Shura Council for the Youth of Islam chanting their allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. The new ISIS wing in Derna calls itself the "Barqa" provincial division of the Islamic State, the name given to the eastern region of Libya when Islamic rule replaced the Roman Empire.

The Libyan branch of ISIS now has a tight grip on the city, controlling the courts, all aspects of administration, education, and the local radio. "Derna today looks identical to Raqqa, the ISIS headquarters town in Syria," Benotman told CNN.

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ISIS comes to Libya

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