Ben Lando

A view of the oil refinery in Baiji, Iraq, taken in 2007, when it was operational. The refinery has been shut down since June 2014.

The US has intervened to help Iraq hold its most important oil facility

Iraqi security forces at the critical Baiji oil refinery have been holding the facility for four months against repeated ISIS attacks. Now the US is flying supplies to the small Iraqi contingent after its own air force had some its helicopters shot down by militants.

The US has intervened to help Iraq hold its most important oil facility
A general view of the Baiji oil refinery, Iraq's largest, in 2009. Today it's being held — barely — by Iraqi forces against ISIS fighters.

As the US bombs ISIS oil in Syria, militants lay siege to Iraq's biggest refinery

As the US bombs ISIS oil in Syria, militants lay siege to Iraq's biggest refinery
oil tanker United Kalavyrta

A ship full of Kurdish oil remains trapped at sea off the coast of Texas

A ship full of Kurdish oil remains trapped at sea off the coast of Texas
Smoke rises from a oil refinery in Baiji, north of Baghdad, in this picture taken through the windscreen of a car, June 19, 2014. Iraqi government forces battled Sunni rebels for control of the country's biggest refinery on Thursday as Prime Minister Nuri

The battle is on for one of Iraq's major oil refineries

The battle is on for one of Iraq's major oil refineries