BBC在线收听下载:尼日利亚球迷观看世界杯地点发生爆炸案

BBC news 2014-06-19

BBC News with Zoe Diamond.

Sunni militants in Iraq have mounted an assault on the country's largest oil refinery in Baiji. There are conflicting reports over the attack as Richard Galpin reports from Baghdad.

The attack began in the early hours of the morning with the militants reportedly firing mortars and machine guns. A source told the BBC that an army helicopter responded to the attack firing rockets, one of which hit a large oil storage tank setting it on fire. He said the militants were now in control of the area. The spokesman for the oil ministry in Baghdad said he did not know who controlled the refinery, adding if it were to close down, it would affect power supplies in the country. But senior security sources insist the refinery is still fully under their control and that they had killed many militants in the fighting there.

Elsewhere, the Iraqi security forces have launched limited air strikes as they fought Sunni militants for control of the northern approaches to Baghdad.

In the last hour, Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has appealed to Iraqis to unite against Sunni militants who he said were killing hundreds of people and destroying the country. He insisted the people of Iraq would not be defeated.

They are in a country that actually is trying, you know, on defeating sectarianism and marginalization. The Iraq is united with its Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds and Arabs.

The Iranian president has said that Tehran will not hesitate to protect Shiite shrines in Iraq. Sebastian Usher reports.

This is the clearest sign so far that Iran is prepared to take military action in Iraq to stop the advance of Sunni Jihadists if they threatened Shiite and by extension Iranian interests there. Tehran is already providing military strategy and advice to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. President Rouhani's pledge to protect the holy Shiite shrines in Iraq is at least partly a response to threats by the Jihadist group ISIS to destroy those sites. Any such attacks could trigger all out civil war with Iraqi Shiites. But other Sunni militants in Iraq have so far distanced themselves from the Jihadists' most inflammatory rhetoric.

A bomb has exploded in northeastern Nigeria at a venue where football fans were watching a world cup match, killing at least 20 people. Witnesses say a suicide bomber in a tricycle taxi detonated explosives at Damaturu in Yobe state. A medical worker told the BBC that many other victims had suffered serious injuries.

There are so many injured people that I couldn't count them all. But the military and police trucks that brought them in have made 4 return trips so far, ferrying them in, and all of them are young men or children, no women among them. Their injuries are indescribable, one had his hand blown off. It was so all so horrific.

BBC News.

The United States has carried out a drone strike in Pakistan, aimed at a target in the north Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border. Local reports said 6 people were killed. At the weekend, the Pakistani army launched a major offensive including air strikes aimed at eliminating foreign and Pakistani militants in the region.

The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said that those who kidnapped 3 Israeli teenagers in the West Bank last week were trying to destroy the Palestinians. Mr. Abbas said that Palestinian officials were working with Israel to try to ensure the safe return of the teenagers. Israel has widened its hunt for the teenagers who went missing last Thursday. It's re-arrested more than 50 Palestinians who were freed in 2011.

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The authorities in Sri Lanka have lifted a curfew in areas affected by clashes between hardline Buddhists and minority Muslims in the south of the country. Thousands of people, mostly Muslims are still staying in camps and mosques where they've taken refuge, following the violence which has killed 4 people and wounded around 80 others since Sunday. Officials say they've arrested nearly 50 people in connection with the attack

That's the World News from the BBC.