Baiji refinery blast injures six workers after grenade explosion linked to ISIS occupation

SALAH AL-DIN – An explosion occurred on Saturday at the Baiji oil refinery in Salah Al-Din province, injuring six workers, local police confirmed to 964media. The blast was caused by the detonation of an MK19 grenade launcher, a remnant of the Islamic State group, left behind during their occupation of the facility.

“Six workers were injured in the explosion, with three in critical condition,” a police source stated. The injured have been transferred to a nearby hospital for treatment.

ISIS seized control of the Baiji refinery in 2014, the largest in Iraq with a capacity to process 300,000 barrels of oil per day. During their occupation, militants looted much of the refinery’s equipment, causing extensive damage before Iraqi forces recaptured the facility in late 2015. Efforts to restore the refinery began after the defeat of ISIS, and it was reopened earlier this year after nearly a decade of inactivity.

Located 130 miles north of Baghdad, Baiji sits on the main road to Mosul, an area heavily impacted by the militant group’s rise in 2014. ISIS, which once controlled vast parts of Iraq and Syria, declared a “caliphate” in 2014 but was driven out of Iraq by a series of military campaigns, culminating in the liberation of Mosul in 2017.

Despite ISIS’s territorial defeat, remnants of the group continue to pose a threat, leaving behind explosives across Iraq. The Ministry of Environment’s Directorate of Mine Affairs reported in August that more than 500 kilometers of land remain contaminated with unexploded ordnance, a deadly legacy of ISIS’s occupation.