A fuel crisis gripping Iraq is worsening after the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant - ISIL - rebels took over the country's largest oil refinery.
The militants took the facility on Wednesday after a gun battle with Iraqi security forces, charged with protecting the Baiji oil complex in the north of the country.
The crisis has caused a severe shortage for fuel stations where queues stretched for two kilometers in Kirkuk and Erbil. Baiji includes a number of sub-refineries which meet half of the country's demand for oil derivatives, amounting to 600,000 barrels per day.
Salahuddin and Diyala provinces, plus the city of Mosul, are also being affected.
Oil expert, Buffer Hines, told the Anadolu Agency that "the fuel crisis in Erbil is being caused by 300,000 displaced people coming from other cities in their cars".
He explained that refineries in Erbil usually meet the needs of the region but that the new arrivals, and people stockpiling fuel, were exacerbating shortages.
ISIL militants seized the Baiji complex after clashing with security forces charged with protecting the area, according to an official source from the state-owned North Refineries Company.
"The ISIL militants stormed the refinery in the early hours of the morning and took control of some parts before they totally seized it," said the source.
Eyewitnesses claim that the rebels downed a military helicopter during the battle for the Baiji facility. The government in Baghdad has yet to confirm the news.
The Iraqi air force bombed areas surrounding the refinery after it was seized, causing fires in some waste oil reservoirs as well as an explosion in some fuel tanks, the official told the Anadolu Agency.
On Wednesday morning, flames reached parts of the refinery, forcing staff to leave. Work at the plant had been suspended since last Monday, delivering a "big blow to the Iraqi economy," the NRC official added.
An employee at the refinery said that an unidentified number of security force personnel responsible for protecting the plant were killed, others wounded and some captured by ISIL militants.
The worker, who requested anonymity, also said that ISIL militants unfurled the group’s flag on an administrative complex near the refinery, and that the staff had left their work sites for an apartment complex near the facility.
ISIL, which already controls parts of Syria, has extended its reach into Iraq since June 10, when it seized Iraq's second-largest city Mosul and soon afterwards took near-complete control of the northern city of Tikrit.
Iraq has seen a marked increase in sectarian violence between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims in recent months, which the Iraqi government blames on ISIL.
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