Fighters set ablaze Iraqi oil refinery

[bemildred]

A huge fire has broken out at the Dura oil refinery outside Baghdad after it was hit by a mortar shell, an Interior Ministry source says.

Firemen were on the scene trying to bring the blaze under control on Friday evening, he said.

"This is a major fire because the mortar fell on the petrol refining area. There are probably many victims. Many ambulances have arrived on the scene," said civil defence spokesman Kazem Bashir Salem.

"Everyone is mobilised. We have sent firemen from 13 stations in Karkh and those in Rasafa are on alert," he said. Karkh is on the west bank of the Tigris in Baghdad and Rasafa the east.

al Jazeera