IS attacks Kirkuk and power plant amid Mosul fight
Islamic State militants armed with assault rifles and explosives attacked targets in and around the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk early on Friday in an assault that appeared aimed at diverting Iraqi security forces from a massive offensive against the IS-held city of Mosul.
At least 11 workers, including two Iranians, were killed when IS militants stormed a power plant north of Kirkuk and then blew themselves up.
Multiple explosions meanwhile rocked the city, and gunbattles were ongoing, said witnesses in Kirkuk. Much of the fighting was centered on a government compound in the city. They said the streets were largely deserted out of fear of militant snipers.
IS said its fighters targeted the provincial headquarters. The claim was carried by the IS-run Aamaq news agency and could not immediately be verified.
Local television channel Rudaw aired footage showing black smoke rising over the city as extended bursts of automatic gunfire rang out.
In the power plant attack, which took place in Dibis, a town north of Kirkuk, three IS suicide bombers entered the facility and took 10 workers hostage, said Ahmed Kader Ali, the Dibis police chief.
They (IS) will increasingly use terror attacks and go back to more of a pure insurgent and terrorist organization in Iraq.” David Witty, analyst and retired US special forces colonel
Iranian hostages killed
The attackers asked to be taken to the Iranians who worked at the plant. One of the workers took them to the Iranians before escaping. The militants then killed the Iranians and the other workers, and detonated their explosive vests when police arrived, Ali said.
Kirkuk is 170 kilometers from the IS-held city of Mosul, where Iraqi forces have been waging a widescale offensive since Monday.
The oil-rich city is some 290 km north of Baghdad.
Later on Friday, Rudaw TV said all IS militants who took part in the Kirkuk attack had been killed except for two who were holed up in a newly built hotel, which was damaged in the attack and from where they were battling Kurdish forces.
Kirkuk police commander Brigadier General Khattab Omer said clashes were still under way, without providing further details. There was no immediate word on casualties among civilians or Kurdish forces in Kirkuk, and the TV report could not immediately be confirmed.
The IS group’s days as a landholding force in Iraq are almost over and it does not appear able to launch major ground counter-offensives as it had done in the past when under attack.
“They will increasingly use terror attacks and go back to more of a pure insurgent and terrorist organization in Iraq,” said David Witty, an analyst and retired US special forces colonel.
Iraqi and Kurdish forces backed by the US-led coalition launched a multipronged assault this week to retake Mosul and surrounding areas from IS. The operation is the largest undertaken by the Iraqi military since the 2003 US-led invasion.
Iraqi officials said they had advanced as far as the town of Bartella, 15 km from Mosul’s outskirts, by Thursday. 11 dead in bus crash
Forensic workers examine the site where a passenger bus plunged down an embankment in Cinchona, Costa Rica, on Thursday, killing 11 people. National University Rector Alberto Salom said the passengers in the bus were university retirees who were headed for a visit in the north of the country.