A suicide bomber killed eight people including six soldiers on Tuesday in the northern Iraqi city of Baiji where government forces are trying to reassert control to break an Islamic State siege of the country’s largest refinery nearby. The bomber targeted a crowd gathering around soldiers who had retaken parts of the city center, Baiji Mayor Mohammed Mahmoud told Reuters. Security officials said two civilians and six soldiers were killed. Islamic State insurgents seized much of northern Iraq five months ago in an offensive in which they took Baiji and surrounded the oil refinery, halting production and besieging a detachment of government troops there. U.S. air strikes have slowed down the radical Sunni Muslim insurgents and enabled Iraqi security forces to make some gains. Iraqi security forces have used helicopters to attack Islamic State fighters ringing the refinery. Months of operations have failed to rescue comrades […]