<p>Iraqi government forces regained full control today of the country's biggest oil refinery after heavy fighting with Sunni militants attempting to seize it, officials said.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Sunni Arab insurgents had stormed the complex in Baiji, south of Iraq's militant-held second city Mosul, yesterday, setting fire to several storage tanks for refined products in a move that sent jitters through world oil markets.<br /><br />"The security forces are in full control of the Baiji refinery," Lieutenant General Qassem Atta, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's security spokesman, said in televised remarks.<br /><br />A refinery employee told AFP that the militants had withdrawn, as did other witnesses, who said the assailants quit the sprawling complex in the face of a heavy fightback by security forces.<br /><br />Clashes erupted at the refinery early yesterday, setting storage tanks for petroleum products alight. The fighting went on until roughly midnight (2100 GMT yesterday) and continued sporadically into today.<br /><br />The refinery is the biggest in Iraq, accounting for some 50 per cent of the country's supplies of refined products.<br /><br />But its catchment area has been sharply curtailed by the militants' seizure of a swathe of northern Iraq, including second city Mosul, which has a population of some two million people.</p>
<p>Iraqi government forces regained full control today of the country's biggest oil refinery after heavy fighting with Sunni militants attempting to seize it, officials said.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Sunni Arab insurgents had stormed the complex in Baiji, south of Iraq's militant-held second city Mosul, yesterday, setting fire to several storage tanks for refined products in a move that sent jitters through world oil markets.<br /><br />"The security forces are in full control of the Baiji refinery," Lieutenant General Qassem Atta, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's security spokesman, said in televised remarks.<br /><br />A refinery employee told AFP that the militants had withdrawn, as did other witnesses, who said the assailants quit the sprawling complex in the face of a heavy fightback by security forces.<br /><br />Clashes erupted at the refinery early yesterday, setting storage tanks for petroleum products alight. The fighting went on until roughly midnight (2100 GMT yesterday) and continued sporadically into today.<br /><br />The refinery is the biggest in Iraq, accounting for some 50 per cent of the country's supplies of refined products.<br /><br />But its catchment area has been sharply curtailed by the militants' seizure of a swathe of northern Iraq, including second city Mosul, which has a population of some two million people.</p>