SULAIMANI (ESTA) — A rocket hit a small oil refinery in northern Iraq on Sunday, causing fire and minor damage, two refinery officials said.
A spokesman for the state-run Northern Refineries Co, which manages a number of Iraqi refineries, earlier told Iraq’s state news agency that two rockets had hit the Siniya refinery, causing a fire that it said had been controlled, Reuters reported.
Officials said authorities had shut down operations at the refinery, which has a 30,000 barrel-per-day refining capacity, after fire spread to a nearby pipeline network.
“We completely shut down production units to avoid extensive damage that could result,” a chief engineer at the refinery told Reuters.
There were no reports of casualties at the refinery, which is near Iraq’s largest oil refinery of Baiji in the province.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for attacking the Siniya refinery, in a statement posted on the group’s official channel.
It said two Katyusha rockets were used in the attack.
*This story was updated at 10:56 p.m. EBL time
