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Iraqi troops backed by Shiite militias recaptured key parts of the northern refinery town of Beiji from the Islamic State group on Sunday, a general said.

The commander of the Interior Ministry's Quick Reaction Forces, Brig. Gen. Nassir al-Fartousi, told state TV that the Iraqi flag was raised over a local government building in Beiji and that troops were advancing to other areas, without elaborating.

The spokesman of Joint Operations Command, Brig. Gen. Saad Maan Ibrahim, said the security forces "are now controlling" the downtown Beiji area, describing the advance as an "important victory."

"The enemy has suffered a defeat and has sustained heavy losses and we hope that the whole city will be cleared within few days," Maan told The Associated Press in a brief interview, saying "dozens" of IS militants had been killed.

There was no word on the fate of the contested refinery on the town's outskirts, but Maan said the capture of Beiji would help Iraqi forces to better secure the nearby Beiji refinery Iraq's largest oil refining facility and key to the country's domestic supplies.

Beiji, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad, fell to the extremist IS group during its blitz across northern Iraq nearly a year ago, but the refinery facility has remained contested ground with IS militants and government forces battling for control. The town is also strategically significant as it lies on the road to IS-held Mosul, Iraq's second largest city.

Iraqi and Kurdish forces have managed to roll back the IS group in many parts of the country with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes, and recaptured the northern city of Tikrit in April. But last month the IS group scored a major victory by capturing Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province.

The IS group has declared an Islamic caliphate in the territories it controls in Syria and Iraq, and has used oil smuggling to finance much of its operations.

In neighboring Syria, the U.S.-led coalition carried out airstrikes against IS positions in the northern town of Souran, which the IS group captured last week from Syrian rebel groups and members of al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, the Nusra Front.

The Local Coordination Committees and the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes occurred Saturday night. The Observatory said the airstrikes killed eight IS members, including a local Syrian commander, and wounded 20.

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Iraq: Troops Advance Against IS in Key Refinery Town - ABC ...

BAGHDAD - Islamic State militants raised their black flag over the local government headquarters in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Friday and claimed victory through mosque loudspeakers after overrunning most of the western provincial capital. |Video

BAGHDAD - Islamic State militants raised their black flag over the local government headquarters in the Iraqi city of Ramadi on Friday and claimed victory through mosque loudspeakers after overrunning most of the western provincial capital. |Video

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - The militant group that said it was behind Wednesday's massacre of 45 commuters in Karachi is a dangerous outfit with ties to Pakistan's Taliban, but intelligence sources voiced doubts about claims it had received financial support from Islamic State.

SARAJEVO - Bosnia has indicted 12 people for forming a terrorist group and traveling to Syria and Iraq to fight for the Islamic State, the state prosecutor's office said on Friday.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Republican Jeb Bush reversed position Thursday on whether the U.S. should have invaded Iraq, reflecting a struggle between being his own man in his expected run for the White House and remaining loyal to his brother who started the war, former President George W. Bush. |Video

BEIRUT - Islamic State issued an audio recording on Thursday that it said was by its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, calling on supporters around the world to join the fight in Syria and Iraq or to take up arms wherever they live.

BAGHDAD - Iraq's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday the deputy commander of the Islamic State group had been killed in an air strike in the north of the country, but the U.S. military denied coalition air forces had conducted such an attack.

LONDON - Prince Charles wrote to ministers on issues ranging from resources for British troops in Iraq to the fate of the Patagonian Toothfish, according to private letters published on Wednesday against government wishes.

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - British interior minister Theresa May declined on Wednesday to say whether three British teenage brides of Islamic State fighters in Iraq who are reported to have escaped the militant group would be allowed back into the country.

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Iraq | Reuters.com

"I think President (George W.) Bush made the best decision he could at the time, given that his intelligence community was telling him that there was (weapons of mass destruction) and that there were other threats right there in Iraq," he told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead."

"But I don't think you can honestly say that if we knew then that there was no (weapons of mass destruction), that the country should have gone to war," he said.

The comments were a direct response to Bush's support for the Iraq War during a Fox News interview. Though Bush was asked by host Megyn Kelly whether, "knowing what we know now," he would've authorized the war in Iraq, he responded affirmatively to a slightly different scenario.

"I would have (authorized the invasion), and so would have Hillary Clinton, just to remind everybody. And so would almost everybody that was confronted with the intelligence they got," Bush said in the interview.

The remarks drew widespread criticism from Bush's left and right flanks, and caused a close ally, GOP strategist Ana Navarro, to backtrack on the comments, saying Bush told her he had "misheard" Kelly's question.

RELATED: Jeb Bush: I would have authorized Iraq War

But the comments gave Christie --who is actively contemplating a presidential bid, and would compete with Bush for establishment Republican support if both run -- an opening to differentiate himself from Bush, and an opportunity for attack.

Christie jabbed at the former Florida governor, who's brother and father have served in the White House, saying that Americans should "avoid ... continuing to go backwards in this country."

"We need a forward-looking foreign policy that talks about how to reassert American authority and influence around the world," he said.

Bush wasn't the only potential opponent that drew fire from Christie in the broad interview with Tapper conducted in New Hampshire, where Christie had delivered an economic speech and was planning a town hall meeting.

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Chris Christie hits Jeb Bush on Iraq War - CNNPolitics.com

IRAQ- Gharraf Oil Field - Well Pad -C
Featuring our construction activities using the Gopro Hero4 Black mounted on Phantom2 This is my first time flying this Phantom, and editing a Video as well, I hope to get better in the future.

By: M.I. Haboubi

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IRAQ- Gharraf Oil Field - Well Pad -C - Video

Kurdish Peshmerga Send IS Flying - IS SVBIED Goes Airborne And Explodes In Mid-Air | Iraq War 2015
Kurdish Peshmerga Send IS Flying - IS SVBIED Goes Airborne And Explodes In Mid-Air. Before the SVBIED reached its main goal, Kurdish Peshmerga were able to destroy the vehicle. As the truck...

By: WarLeaks

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Kurdish Peshmerga Send IS Flying - IS SVBIED Goes Airborne And Explodes In Mid-Air | Iraq War 2015 - Video