IRAQ : A picture taken in the city of Ramadi in the Anbar province, shows buildings that were damaged during fightings. — AFP BAGHDAD, June 24 (agences): Iraqi air strikes killed at least 32 people Tuesday as security forces held off attacks on a strategic town and an oil refinery, officials and witnesses said. Pro-government forces battled Sunni militants at a key town and Iraq's biggest oil refinery as John Kerry pushed the country's leaders Tuesday to heal rifts in a crisis threatening to tear it apart.
Security forces successes, including retaking a border crossing with Syria, were marred by air strikes that killed civilians during a counter-offensive against insurgents led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) who have seized swathes of five provinces north and west of Baghdad.
The US Secretary of State's unannounced trip to Arbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region came a day after he pledged "intense" American support to Iraq to repel the insurgent advance.
In the town of Baiji, north of Baghdad, air strikes killed at least 19 people and wounded at least 17 others, officials said.
The officials said the dead and wounded were civilians, and it was unclear if there were any casualties among the militants who were the target of the strikes.
Iraqiya state television said 19 "terrorists" were killed in the Baiji raids.
In the Husseibah area of Anbar province, west of Baghdad, another air strike killed seven militants and six civilians, witnesses said.
Elsewhere in Anbar, security forces and allied tribesmen held off an assault on the strategic town of Haditha, located on the road to provincial capital Ramadi, a police officer said.
Militants also launched a renewed push to seize Iraq's largest oil refinery, which is located near Baiji, but the overnight attack was repelled by security forces, officials said.
The refinery, which filled some 50 percent of Iraq's demand for refined petroleum products in better days, has been the scene of heavy fighting since militants launched a major offensive on June 9, sending jitters through world oil markets.
The militants, led by jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, have overrun major areas of five provinces and driven to within less than 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Baghdad.
Security forces performed poorly during the initial onslaught, and are now struggling to hold their ground in the face of the relentless militant push.
The militant onslaught has displaced hundreds of thousands of people, alarmed world leaders, and put Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki under pressure at home and abroad.
After wilting in the face of the initial militant attack two weeks ago, Iraqi forces appear to be performing better, holding off major assaults at the Baiji oil refinery and the western town of Haditha.
The overnight attack on the refinery complex-the scene of heavy fighting in recent days-was repulsed by security forces, officials said.
Previous assaults on Baiji, which previously filled some 50 percent of Iraq's demand for refined petroleum products, sent jitters through world oil markets.
They also carried out air strikes on Baiji town and the western border area of Husseibah.
State television said 19 "terrorists" were killed in Baiji, but officials and witnesses said the casualties were civilians, and of 13 people killed in Husseibah, seven were insurgents.
Another report adds: More than 1,000 people-at least three quarters of them civilians-were killed this month as Islamist militants swept through large swaths of northern and western Iraq, the UN said Tuesday.
At least 1,075 people were killed and 658 injured in the country in the 17 days from June 5 and 22, Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN human rights office told reporters in Geneva.
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