Strikes close Iraq's largest refinery for past 3 days

A soldier stands watch at Baiji refinery

BAGHDAD, Dec. 11 — Strikes and protests over a siege imposed on a Sunni town by American forces have shut Iraq’s largest oil refinery for the past three days, officials of the oil ministry said today. Workers have stayed away from the refinery in the face of threats from insurgents, the officials said.

In the capital, gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms ambushed a bank vehicle today and stole more than $1 million in cash, news services reported.

And in northern Baghdad late Sunday night, a roadside bomb killed three soldiers and wounded two others, the American military announced today.

The siege began Nov. 30 around Siniya, a town of about 50,000 people in the Sunni heartland north of Baghdad, after its mayor and entire council resigned in the face of insurgent threats.

On Saturday, residents in nearby Baiji, the site of the refinery, declared a general strike to protest the siege, which Iraqi officials say has made food and medicine scarce in Siniya, a charge that American military officials have denied.

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