Iraqi forces clash with Kurdish peshmerga in Kirkuk

Hours after moving to reclaim control of the northern city of Kirkuk, Iraqi government forces said that they had reached the outskirts of the city, seizing oil fields and other important sites from Kurdish forces that had held the territory since 2014
Monday, 16 October 2017 16:48

Iraq's central government forces launched an advance early on Monday into territory held by Kurds, seizing a swathe of the countryside surrounding the oil city of Kirkuk in bold military response to a Kurdish vote last month on independence. By midday, federal forces had moved into several major oil fields north of the city, as well as its airport and an important military base. Kurdish party headquarters inside Kirkuk had been abandoned.

The quick advance pitted one American-trained military force against another. Iraqi government troops and the Kurdish forces, known as peshmerga, are both parts of the American-led coalition. The elite, U.S.-trained "Counter-Terrorism Service, the 9th armoured division and Federal Police have taken control of vast areas of Kirkuk without confrontations," Iraqi TV said, adding that oilfields and Kurdish military positions were captured.

The Iraqi government said Sunday that militants from Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) were among Kurdish forces in a standoff with its army in the disputed oil province of Kirkuk, in what it said amounted to a "declaration of war". 

At least 10 peshmerga fighters were killed and 27 wounded during fighting overnight with Iraqi pro-government forces, a Kurdish official said. Sherzad Hassan, deputy director of health in the Chamchamal region, said the toll covered only hospitals in his area. 

Iraq’s Kurdish security forces said Baghdad would pay a "heavy price" for launching an advance on the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk.

A statement released by the Kurdistan Region Security Council said peshmerga fighters had destroyed five American-supplied Humvees used by Iraqi forces, and would continue to resist them. The council is controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or K.D.P., led by Masoud Barzani, the region’s president.

But a leader of a rival Kurdish party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, or P.U.K., said the party had agreed to vacate its military positions and hand them over to government forces early Monday morning. Wista Raool, a commander of P.U.K. peshmerga forces south of Kirkuk, said the party sought to return the oil fields to the central government, according to NYT. Raool accused Barzani and his party of "stealing" the oil from the central government.

Earlier in the day, Iraqi Kurdistan’s Security Council said that the Iraqi government forces have started an offensive to gain control of the disputed province of Kirkuk, which has been under control of the Kurdish Peshmerga paramilitary forces since 2014, when the Kurds expelled the Islamic State terrorist group’s forces from the region.

Abadi received the parliament’s approval to deploy troops to Kirkuk shortly after the Kurdish independence referendum, held on September 25 and declared illegal by Baghdad.