them from the northern oil fields. in addition to that fighting rages near baku baa. it s less than an hour drive from the capital of baghdad ab you look at the area. also, the insurgent s next target. they expect it to be baghdad airport. they may not be able to hold it. they could disrupt operations after insurgents sweeping in from syria toward the capital capturining mo sul over a week o and heading south toward baghdad. president obama meeting with congressional leaders in few years to talk about u.s. options in iraq. and that is where we start our coverage now. with nbc ayman. he joins us from iraq on the top topic. what is the latest on the oil refinery we were talking about? well, it s effectively sent shock waives throughout the northern part of iraq and pretty much throughout the entire gas
industry. because this refinery was the largest one in iraq. and certainly now that 75% of it has somewhat fallen into the hands of the rebels, you can expect it s going to increase the anxiety levels among ordinary iraqis. it will have serious implications on the day-to-day lives. we have seen the anxiety creating long lines at the gas stations here. we expect to see shortages in electricity over the next couple of days as a result of this. the refinery itself was closed a few days ago with several of the foreign workers already being evacuated. it was still under the control of iraqi special forces. that seems to be falling. oil refinery seems to be falling into the hands of those isis fighters. it gives you a sense of how strong they are and how determined they are to continue their territorial gain that have they i have been pushing into areas like baku baa and elsewhere. thank you very much. as we said president obama meets with congressional leaders in
in the heart of the capital. in addition to that, there were some disturbing images coming out of baku baa at the population according to iraqi military and police. 34 detainees were killed. it s not clear how they were killed. according to the iraqi military, they say it was the isis fighters shelling the population that lead to the killing. isis fighters or those close to the group were saying they were sunni arabs. they were kill bid sigh united shiite. and underlying the tensions that exist between the two sectarian groups here in the country. and our own richard dingell is reporting is despiting the urging to have maliki engage with the sunni and kurdish leader. it appears he s resistant and, at this point, focussing on the
because it won t end. as we mentioned, the violence has continued overnight. let s go to nbc amon. he joins us live in iraq. what is the latest on the ground there? reporter: one of the main point of the past 24 hours has been the city of baku baa which is northeast of baghdad. they have seen some squirmishes on the outer lying part of the town. at least according to sources we ve been speaking to, has been the sight of fighting between isis parters and the iraqi army trying to repel them. an iraqi military spokesperson said the city firmly rehanmains the hands to try to take it. why that city so important because it s about 37 miles away from baghdad. it s on the same highway and if isis fighters were able of taking it over, they would be within a short drive to the heart of the iraqi country right