Militants Attack Iraq's Largest Oil Refinery

Iraqi security forces battled insurgents targeting the country's main oil refinery and claimed to regain partial control of a city near the Syrian border Wednesday, trying to blunt a weeklong offensive by militants who diplomats fear may have abducted some 100 foreign workers.

The campaign by the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has raised the specter of the sectarian warfare that nearly tore the country apart in 2006 and 2007 and the doubts that followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion now haunt those trying to decide how to respond.

U.S. President Barack Obama will brief lawmakers later Wednesday at the White House on what options his wary country could take.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, struck an optimistic tone after soldiers abandoned their posts in the wake of the initial offensive, promising his nation would teach the attackers a "lesson."

"We have now started our counteroffensive, regaining the initiative and striking back," al-Maliki said.

Al-Maliki's relatively upbeat assessment came as the military claimed its forces regained parts of the strategic city of Tal Afar near the Syrian border, which Islamic State fighters captured Monday. Its closeness to the Syrian border strengthens the Islamic State's plan to carve out an "Islamic emirate" stretching across the Iraq-Syria border.