Baiji, Iraq

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

Conflict

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.

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

Conflict