Just a few hours ago, amid the reports of fighting in and around the Baiji refinery in northern Iraq, there were plenty of assurances that the main Iraqi forces were in complete control.
Like this one:
Battle for Iraq refinery as U.S. hesitates to strike
June 19, 2014
(Reuters) – Iraqi government forces battled Sunni rebels for control of the country's biggest refinery on Thursday as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki waited for a U.S. response to an appeal for air strikes to beat back the threat to Baghdad.
The sprawling Baiji refinery, 200 km (130 miles) north of the capital near Tikrit, was a battlefield as troops loyal to the Shi'ite-led government held off insurgents from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and its allies who had stormed the perimeter a day earlier, threatening national energy supplies.
A government spokesman said around noon (0900 GMT) that its forces were in "complete control" but a witness in Baiji said fighting was continuing and ISIL militants were still present.
(Source)
Is the claim of complete control another Baghdad Bob moment, or the truth?
Well, this doesn't sound like complete control to me:
Militants Fly Their Black Flags Over Iraq Refinery
Jun 19, 2014
BAGHDAD (AP) — Sunni militants have hung their black banners on watch towers at Iraq's largest oil refinery, a witness said Thursday, suggesting the vital facility had fallen to the insurgents in control of vast territories across the country's north.
A top Iraqi security official, however, said the government still held the facility.
The Iraqi security official said the government force protecting the refinery was still inside Thursday and that they were in regular contact with Baghdad. The refinery's workers had been evacuated to nearby villages, he said.
Helicopter gunships flew over the facility to stop any militant advance, the official said. The insurgent took over a building just outside the refinery and were using it to fire at the government force, he said.
The Beiji refinery accounts for a little more than a quarter of the country's entire refining capacity — all of which goes toward domestic consumption for things like gasoline, cooking oil and fuel for power stations.
by cmartenson 
