Iraq forces retake Baiji

Iraqi forces yesterday recaptured the strategic oil town of Baiji in a significant victory over the Islamic State group, as the UN accused the jihadists of crimes against humanity in neighbouring Syria.Baiji is the largest town to be retaken by government troops since ISIS-led militants overran much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland in June in their bid to create an Islamic "caliphate".The northern town, which had been out of government control for months, is located near Iraq's main oil refinery on the main highway to the ISIS-held second city of Mosul.Its recapture further isolates militants farther south in the city of Tikrit, hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein, although ISIS still controls large parts of Iraq as well as swathes of Syria.

"Iraqi forces were able to regain complete control of the town of Baiji," Ahmed al-Krayim, the head of the Salaheddin provincial council, told AFP.
Soldiers, police, Shiite militiamen and tribesmen were all involved in the operation to retake Baiji, and are now pushing farther north, Krayim said. Breaking through to the massive refinery would be another significant win for the government in Baghdad.Meanwhile, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria released its first report focused squarely on ISIS crimes, presenting a horrifying picture of what life is like in areas controlled by the extremist jihadists, including massacres, beheadings, torture, sexual enslavement and forced pregnancy.

"The commanders of ISIS have acted wilfully, perpetrating these war crimes and crimes against humanity with clear intent of attacking persons with awareness of their civilian or 'hors de combat' (non-combat) status," the report said.Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron meanwhile outlined plans to seize the passports of British jihadists to stop them from returning after fighting overseas.Hundreds of citizens from various western countries have joined ISIS and other militant groups, raising fears that they may come home to carry out attacks.Meanwhile, a high-level Syrian opposition official and a rebel commander have said that militant leaders from the SIS and al-Qaeda gathered at a farm house in northern Syria last week and agreed on a plan to stop fighting each other and work together against their opponents.Such an accord could present new difficulties for Washington's strategy against the ISIS group. While warplanes from a US-led coalition strike militants from the air, the Obama administration has counted on arming “moderate” rebel factions to push them back on the ground.

The report came as American aircraft bombed the Khorasan group in Syria on Thursday, in the third attack on the al-Qaeda offshoot that is considered an immediate threat to the West, the US military's Central Command said.The White House has said the group includes al-Qaeda operatives from Afghanistan and Pakistan who made their way to Syria. Independent experts and Syrian activists have questioned how the group has been portrayed by Washington, and have cast doubt on the distinction between Khorasan and the Al-Nusra Front.Meanwhile, the ISIS said its leader has ordered that the organisation start minting gold, silver and copper coins for its own currency the Islamic dinar.A website affiliated with the militant group said late on Thursday that its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has instructed his followers to start minting the coins to “change the tyrannical monetary system” modelled on Western economies that “enslaved Muslims.”