IS assault on Kirkuk 'not yet over'

Mixed reports emerged on Saturday as to whether clashes between Iraqi security forces and Islamic State militants were ongoing in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

A large-scale Islamic State attack began in the city on Friday and saw militants from the group occupy numerous buildings in the city while simultaneously attacking a power plant in Dibis, located about 40km northwest of Kirkuk.

Speaking to AP Brig. Gen. Khattab Omer of the local Kirkuk police on Saturday said that all those involved in the attack had been killed or had self-detonated suicide devices.

But both Rudaw and AFP reported that clashes remained ongoing in the city. A spokesperson for Iraq’s interior ministry told AFP that 46 people had been killed and 133 wounded during the attack, while Rudaw reported that security forces were patrolling the streets of Kirkuk in search of remaining militants.

According to a police chief that spoke to Rudaw around 70 IS members infiltrated the city, with claims that some may have entered disguised as refugees.

A correspondent with The New Arab’s sister site reported on Saturday that units of the Shia militia Hashd al-Shaabi, or Popular Mobilisation Units had deployed to Kirkuk.

Their presence has concerned some with one local council member, who spoke to The New Arab’s sister site, hazarding that the militias could exploit the fragile security situation in order to establish a foothold in Kirkuk and calling for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s intervention in order to prevent such an eventuality.

The Kirkuk attack has been viewed by some as an attempt to divert focus from Mosul, approximately 170 km from Kirkuk, where Iraqi forces recently began a major offensive against the Islamic State on Monday.

AFP reported on Saturday that the Iraqi army’s 9th Division had launched a new assault to retake Hamdaniyah, a town 20km southeast of Mosul, supported by US-led coalition airstrikes.

Earlier this week Iraqi forces retook the town of Bartella, about 15 km east of Mosul but still face pockets of resistance, with advances slowed by IS’s mining and booby trapping of roads approaching the city.