Flames rise from the Siniya refinery in Iraq after a rocket attack by militants Sunday. - Screencapture Via Twitter

Flames rise from the Siniya refinery in Iraq after a rocket attack by militants Sunday.

Screencapture Via Twitter

Militants continue to target oil facilities in the Middle East with the latest rocket attack reported Sunday in the Salahuddin province of north central Iraq.

A blaze caused by two Katyusha rockets spread into a storage tank at the small Siniya refinery in Baiji, midway between Baghdad and Mosul. Firefighters extinguished the flames in about two hours.

The ISIL, also known as ISIS, claimed responsibility for firing the rockets.

Personnel extinguished the fire within two hours. No casualties were reported.

Although state-owned Northern Refining Company reported that operations resumed within several hours, an engineer at the refinery told Reuters that production has been shut down as a precaution in case of further attacks.

A three-year military intervention by the United States and other countries took back all Iraqi territory held by ISIL in 2017, driving the militant organization underground. Frequent attacks remain common, particularly in northern Iraq.

Baiji is also home to Iraq’s largest oil refinery.

On November 23, Yemeni Houthi forces supporting Iran staged a missile attack on an oil distribution station in west Saudi Arabia, putting a 500,000-barrel storage tank out of commission.

Operations resumed three hours after the attack on the Saudi Aramco facility in Jeddah, Saudi Aramco reports.

Shortly before 4 a.m., a missile struck the rim of the storage tank and exploded, punching a hole about two meters square in the roof. Photos published after the attack clearly show impact damage.

Fixed fire protection systems activated within minutes with an emergency response team arriving soon after, authorities report. Firefighters extinguished the fire resulting from the attack within 40 minutes.

The North Jeddah facility consists of 13 storage tanks with a total capacity of 5.2 million barrels. Isolated from the bulk of Saudi Aramco facilities, the station distributes more than 120,000 barrels of diesel oil, gasoline and jet fuel daily.

Saudi Aramco did not disclose the contents of the damaged tank nor how much product it contained when struck.

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