Iraqi army, militia forces launch assault to retake Baiji from Islamic State

The Iraqi army and volunteer militia fighters, who are mostly Shi'ite, launched an assault on Wednesday to retake the city of Baiji in northern Iraq from Islamic State militants, an Iraqi military spokesman said. Baiji is near the country's largest oil refinery and is only 150 km (90 miles) away from Mosul, Iraq's second largest city which fell to the hardline Sunni militants of Islamic State in June 2014. The Hashid Shaabi militiamen and Iraqi army soldiers began their assault from the south on