Islamic State militants driven out of Iraq’s Beiji

Iraqi soldiers battling the Islamic State group recaptured the heart of the town of Beiji, home to the country's largest oil refinery.

Iraqi government forces on Friday drove Islamic State militants out from their remaining strongholds inside the oil refinery town of Beiji, two security officials said.

The Iraqi troops also lifted the Islamic State group’s siege of the oil refinery and hoisted Iraq’s red, white and black flags atop the sprawling complex hosting the facility.

Reached by telephone in Beiji, the officials said the Army used loudspeakers to warn the small number of residents still holed up in the town to stay indoors while bomb squads detonated booby-trapped houses and remaining bombs planted on the roads.

The two officials said fierce battles were fought early on Friday around the refinery and that government warplanes strafed Islamic State positions around the facility on the northern edge of the town.