Fire at Iraq’s Baiji refinery kills one, injures 13

A fire at a fuel production unit caused a huge blaze at Iraq's Baiji refinery on Monday, killing a worker and injuring 13 others, according to police, medical sources and the country's oil ministry.

Engineers at the Baiji refinery complex, some 180 km (110 miles) north of Baghdad, said they had seen at least one dead body and firefighters managed to control the blaze.

The fire has not had any impact on production operations, engineers at the refinery said.

The oil ministry said in a later statement that the fire was contained and was caused by some daily routine maintenance.

The Baiji refinery, 200 kilometres (124 miles) north of Baghdad, was heavily damaged in some of the fiercest battles with the Islamic State group after it swept across a third of Iraq in 2014.

After the facility's full rehabilitation, authorities reopened it in February 2024.

Iraq is one of the world's biggest oil producers and crude oil sales make up 90 percent of budget revenues.