Iraqi forces have launched a major offensive over several fronts aimed at retaking the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk, allegedly causing \u201clots of casualties\u201d in fighting south of the city.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The federal army, backed by Shia militias, said they seized control of the city\u2019s international airport, in addition to an oil field, the strategic K1 military base and the Taza Khormatu district southeast of Kirkuk on Monday.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Kurdish forces known as the Peshmerga were digging in at the edge of the airport after withdrawing from their positions outside the northern city.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hundreds of armed Kurdish residents were taking up positions inside the city anticipating an attack.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Residents of the multi-ethnic city, home to about a million Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Christians, stayed inside and reported hearing sporadic booms they said sounded like shelling and rocket fire.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Kurdistan Region Security Council said in a statement that the Peshmerga destroyed at least five Humvee armoured vehicles being used by the state-sanctioned militias following the attack south of the city.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An Iraqi Kurdish commander said the fighting with Kurdish forces caused \u201clots of casualties\u201d, without providing a specific figure.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brigadier General Bahzad Ahmed said the Iraqi troops \u201cburnt lots of houses and killed many people\u201d in Tuz Khurmatu and Daquq, south of the disputed city.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
His claims could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Iraq\u2019s interior ministry said in a brief statement that federal forces have taken control of a power plant, a police station and industrial areas near Kirkuk.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It provided no further details on the fighting or casualties in what it referred to as Operation Impose Security on Kirkuk.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2018Unprovoked attack\u2019<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The KRSC said in their statement that the \u201cPeshmerga will continue to defend Kurdistan, its people and interests\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was an unprovoked attack following days of Iraqi military deployments to Kurdistan\u2019s borders.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hemin Hawrami, senior assistant to Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani, also said on Twitter that Peshmerga forces had been ordered \u201cnot to initiate any war, but if any advancing militia starts shooting\u201d, then they had the \u201cgreen light to use every power\u201d to respond.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Al Jazeera\u2019s Charles Stratford, reporting from Erbil, said Kurdish forces in and around Kirkuk \u201chave vowed to defend it to the last man\u201d. He added that the Kurdish governor of Kirkuk has reportedly called residents to arms, \u201csaying anybody with a weapon should take it up and defend the city\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Iraqi state TV said that Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi gave orders to the security forces \u201cto impose security in Kirkuk in cooperation with the population and the Peshmerga\u201d.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Iraqi army said the operation is being spearheaded by the 9th armoured division, the federal police and counterterrorism units, Stratford reported.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are saying that thousands of Shia militias are very much in a supportive role,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The launch of the operation followed a tense standoff between the two sides amid an escalating row in the wake of a controversial September 25 referendum on Kurdish secession.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems as if all diplomatic efforts have failed,\u201d said Stratford, calling the push a \u201cvery worrying\u201d development.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite repeated denials by the Iraqi army that they were going to move on into the city and retake these oil fields, it seems very much as if that is happening now.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iraqi forces have launched a major offensive over several fronts aimed at retaking the Kurdish-held city of Kirkuk, allegedly causing “lots of casualties” in fighting south of the city. The federal army, backed by Shia militias, said they seized control of the city’s international airport, in addition to an oil field, the strategic K1 military base and the Taza Khormatu district southeast of Kirkuk on Monday. Kurdish forces known as the Peshmerga were digging in at the edge of the airport after withdrawing from their positions outside the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[30,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11270,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11268\/revisions\/11270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}