Alwaght- According to Reuters, Iraqi military forces reached the center of the northern city of Baiji on Sunday in an effort to break an ISIS terrorist group siege of the country's biggest refinery, triggering fierce clashes with the terrorists, according to an army colonel and a witness.
Separately, contradictory reports emerged over the fate of ISIS terrorist leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after air strikes against the terrorist group in at least two locations in Iraq on Friday night.
America said it had no information to indicate Baghdadi had been hit. State television cited reports that Baghdadi had been wounded. It gave no further details.
Baghdadi's mercenaries seized much of northern Iraq five months ago in a lightning offensive which also saw them capture the city of Baiji and surround its oil refinery, halting production and besieging a detachment of government troops there.
The colonel said Iraqi troops entered Baiji, a city of about 200,000 people, from the south and west and took over the al-Tamim neighborhood and city center.
ISIS terrorist group had placed bombs along roads in Baiji and deployed snipers to keep government forces from advancing, tactics used in other cities held by the Takfiri groups, which controls swathes of both Iraq and Syria.
"The areas taken so far are 6 km (4 miles) away from Baiji's refinery," the colonel said, adding 12 terrorists had been killed.
Baiji resident Sultan al-Janabi told Reuters by telephone from his house that clashes had been raging since the advance, the first time security forces reached the city center since launching a new encirclement strategy at the end of last month.
