IS torches three oil wells near Hawija: officials

♦ IS hostages stand between US-led forces and Raqa

♦ 11 dead in Damascus bomb attack: monitor

Islamic State militants set fire to three oil wells near Hawija, west of the oil city of Kirkuk, one of two areas of Iraq still under their control, military and oil officials said yesterday.

Iraqi security forces were using bulldozers to control the fires started by the militants in the early hours of Saturday to slow the advance of US-backed Iraqi forces and Shia militia groups toward Hawija town, military officials said.

The Allas oilfield, 35 km (20 miles) south of Hawija, was one of the main sources of revenue for Islamic State, which in 2014 declared a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq.

"Terrorists are trying to use the rising smoke to avert air strikes while retreating from the area towards Hawija," said army Colonel Mohammed al-Jabouri.

Military officials said the fire had been brought under control at one of the wells, while the other two were still burning. They said it would take about three days to put out the fires, reported Reuters.

Oil officials from the state-run North Oil Company said it was still too risky to send its crews in to assess damage at the wells as militants may have left bombs and landmines.

In Syria, Raqqa's hospital, a big complex pocked with bullets holes, whose capture will signal the end of Islamic State's crumbling Syrian capital, lies just 200 yards from a front-line base of the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Beyond it, a roundabout where the jihadists once displayed the heads of their enemies, crucified people and held military parades at the height of their expansion is another strategic prize sought by the US-backed militia alliance.

Meanwhile, at least 11 people, including police officers and civilians, were killed yesterday in a bomb attack at a police station in Syria's capital Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.